Senate Acts on Nuclear Materials Security

On June 26, the Senate passed an amendment to the Defense Authorization Bill, authorizing $100 million to nuclear and radiological materials security, implementing many of the recommendations made recently by FAS researchers in studies of radiological weapons and of highly-enriched uranium. Originally introduced as the Nuclear Nonproliferation Act of 2002, the proposed legislation passed as an amendment to the Defense Authorization Bill with Senators Domenici and Biden as the principle cosponsors. They were joined in their bipartisan sponsorship of the bill by Senators Lugar, Landrieu, Hagel, Carnahan, Murkowski, Bingaman and Mikulski. The new provisions still must survive conference with the House.

The largest portion of the authorized funds, $40 million, will go toward the accelerated blend-down of Russian highly enriched uranium (HEU) to below twenty percent U-235. The funds can be used to establish new blending facilities, to build centralized secure storage facilities in Russia, and to offer incentives to smaller, less secure facilities to agree to the removal of all their HEU. Incentives can also be offered to other countries in the region—particularly those that cannot afford to provide adequate security—to relinquish their HEU and decommission facilities. In the case of HEU-fueled research reactors, the US can offer assistance in the conversion to proliferation-resistant low-enriched uranium (LEU) fuel.

The amendment also authorizes $15 million for a program on research and technology to reduce the likelihood of nuclear and radiological terrorism, and to mitigate the effects should an incident occur. The goal of this program is to develop technologies for detection, identification, and control of nuclear and radioactive materials as well as for their disposition. The advances made and the knowledge gained under this program will be incorporated into emergency response programs, and will be used to assist other countries in developing a regulatory framework for their nuclear and radiological materials, improving security, and establishing safe means of disposal.

Under the Domenici-Biden amendment, the Materials Protection Control and Accounting (MPC&A) program will be expanded to include countries outside the Russian Federation and the Former Soviet Union. The amendment also establishes the Radiological Dispersal Device Protection Control and Accounting (RDDPC&A) program, which will be tasked with identifying vulnerable radioactive materials worldwide, enhancing their security, and recovering orphaned sources. Five million dollars are designated for these purposes.

The amendment authorizes a total of $35 million for strengthened international safeguards for safety of nuclear materials and nuclear operations. Of this sum, $10 million is designated for the development of “proliferation resistant nuclear technologies” in cooperation with the Russian Ministry of Atomic Energy. These funds will partly go toward the development of high density LEU fuels and feasibility studies for reactor conversion. Fifteen of the $35 million is slated for assistance to the International Atomic Energy Association in strengthening international nuclear safety and security, and $5 million for the protection of nuclear power plants from sabotage by hostile insiders or aircraft impact.

The remaining $5 million is designated for the strengthening of export control programs, particularly in the Former Soviet Union, South Asia, the Middle East, and the Far East. The DOE is authorized to provide assistance to other nations in enhancing their control over the export of materials, technologies and expertise that could be used in the construction of a radiological dispersal device or a nuclear weapon.