International donations to nuclear security

Thursday, 18 January 2007 The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA's) Nuclear Security Fund has been boosted by $17 million in donations from Canada, the European Union (EU) and the UK.

About half of the money will go towards reducing risks associated with Cold War weapons of mass destruction. The US dollar total is composed of C$4 million from Canada, Eur7 million from the EU and £2 million from the UK. The Canadian and British contributions have come as part of their commitments under the Global Partnership of the G8 group of industrialised nations.

The Partnership concentrates on neutralising chemical, biological and nuclear weapons and materials. The money will be spent in cooperative projects with the IAEA to improve the physical security of weapons-usable nuclear materials such as plutonium and high-enriched uranium at facilities in Central Asia. Lord Truscott, UK Energy Minister said that his country's donation would be spent in Armenia, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

After the collapse and break-up of the Soviet Union, many of the bloc's former states found themselves with nuclear weapons facilities and material stockpiles they no longer had the money or skills to maintain properly. In that period, Kazakhstan notably destroyed its arsenal of 1300 inherited Soviet warheads. Other countries found a workforce of highly skilled weapons experts suddenly unemployed - a major global security risk.

Geoff Hoon, a minister in the UK's Foreign Office said: "This work in Central Asia indicates how broad the Global Partnership is. While many of the Cold War legacy threats are located in Russia, there is also important work to be done in other former Soviet Union countries. This is why we are supporting significant projects in Kazakhstan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan to retrain former weapons scientists and engineers." Lord Truscott added that 1000 new jobs have been created for these people by the Global Partnership.

The EU contribution is earmarked for a program of activity to strengthen the security of nuclear facilities in sub-Saharan Africa.

At a recent IAEA conference in Algiers, African leaders spoke of their right to develop nuclear technology for power generation and medicine. However, security at some African facilities has been noted to be lacking.

Anita Nilsson of the IAEA's Office of Nuclear Security said that preventing nuclear material from entering the wrong hands is critical: "While they are very important for development, there materials have also risk factors that if used for malicious purposes could cause harm, health effects, contamination and disruption." She added that control to prevent smuggling of nuclear materials requires resources in terms of training, enforcement and political will.

Further information

International Atomic Energy Agency