07 September 2006
U.S. Nuclear Security Agency Combats Nuclear Terrorism
Energy Department entity has expanded role in preventing nuclear terror
Security Administration (NNSA) plays a key role in U.S. efforts to prevent nuclear weapons and materials from falling into terrorist hands.
Since the terrorist attacks on the United States of September 11, 2001, NNSA has doubled spending on nuclear nonproliferation programs, according to a September 6 fact sheet from the agency.
NNSA was created by Congress in 2000 as a semiautonomous part of the U.S. Department of Energy. Its overall function is to “enhance national security through the military application of nuclear science.” It develops and implements programs to secure and/or eliminate nuclear weapons and nuclear materials internationally, while maintaining and enhancing “the safety, security, reliability and performance of the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile without nuclear testing.”
NNSA also maintains expertise for responding to nuclear and radiological emergencies, and provides training for foreign governments, as well as U.S. state and local authorities .
The NNSA fact sheet cites the following accomplishments:
• Returning 228 kilograms (502 pounds) of Soviet-origin nuclear material from vulnerable sites around the world. (See related article.)
• Returning 3,300 kilograms (7,260 pounds) of U.S.-origin nuclear material. (See related article.)
• Converting 43 research nuclear reactors around the world from using highly enriched uranium to low-enriched uranium as fuel.
• Shutting down two additional research reactors using highly enriched uranium.
• Training of more than 500 foreign officials annually in proper physical protection of nuclear material and facilities.
• Monitoring the conversion of enough Russian highly enriched uranium to make 11,038 nuclear warheads.
• Disposing of nearly 90 metric tons (close to 200,000 pounds) of surplus Russian highly enriched uranium.
• Securing more than 80 percent of vulnerable Russian nuclear weapons material storage sites, including more than 170 buildings.
• Enhancing security at all 39 Russian navy sites and at 14 Russian Strategic Rocket Forces sites, where hundreds of warheads are kept.
Moreover, NNSA has a mandate to secure radioactive materials that, though not suitable to make nuclear weapons, could be used to make so-called "dirty bombs" in which a “jacket” of radioactive material is wrapped around a conventional explosive core. To this end, the agency has recovered about 3 million curies worth of radiological sources from 112 sites in Russia (and recovered more than 13,000 radioactive sources in the United States).
NNSA also has improved physical security at 439 facilities worldwide containing vulnerable, radioactive material. In addition, it is upgrading an additional 245 sites in 40 countries.
Preventing the movement and smuggling of nuclear materials is a vital part of its mission. Since the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the agency has:
• Held more than 180 workshops for foreign customs and border officials (as well as training more than 4,500 U.S. customs and border officials) on how to recognize elements of weapons of mass destruction and on key nonproliferation principles;
• Installed radiation detection equipment at international seaports in six countries (with similar ports in 14 more countries at various stages of implementation);
• Equipped 88 Russian sites with radiation detection equipment at borders, airports, and ports; and
• Created nearly 4,400 jobs and “engaged” at least 12,000 former weapons of mass destruction scientists and engineers at 180 institutes across the former Soviet Union.
For more information on U.S. arms control and nuclear nonproliferation efforts, see Arms Control and Non-Proliferation.
The NNSA fact sheet is available on the agency’s Web site.
(Distributed by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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