Conferences, Videos & Testimony
Nuclear Nonproliferation Verification Institute
December 5, 1999
Inagural Program—December, 1999
The 20th Century has ended, but the threat of nuclear proliferation persists. Efforts begun in the 1990s to prevent Iraq and North Korea from obtaining nuclear weapons remain unfinished. The 1998 nuclear tests by India and Pakistan have raised the specter of a nuclear arms race in South Asia. In the Middle East, existing and suspected nuclear weapons programs threaten to spur a nuclear arms race. Meanwhile, the threat of “nuclear leakage” from the former Soviet Union has not been adequately addressed.
Addressing these challenges requires fresh ideas about how to stop the spread of nuclear weapons, prevent the misuse or irresponsible transfers of plutonium and highly enriched uranium and their production technologies, and make nuclear programs more transparent. Many of the verification techniques now being used to further these objectives were developed only recently, and their implementation faces multiple challenges.
The Nuclear Nonproliferation Verification Institute provides participants with detailed information about how countries pursue nuclear weapons and the strategies used by the international community to stop proliferation. The program features seminars and case studies addressing nuclear proliferation threats, and discusses many of the fundamental techniques and measures that are being used to prevent proliferation and verify nuclear nonproliferation agreements.
This unclassified program is aimed at nonproliferation policy practitioners; government officials, contractors, and scientists; members of the academic, research, and professional communities; graduate students, and others in the nuclear energy or national security fields. Featured seminars will be given by prominent nonproliferation policy experts, including: former International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization (KEDO) officials; scientists from U.S. national laboratories; independent researchers; and a member of South Africa’s now-dismantled nuclear weapons program.
The program will feature formal seminars, technology demonstrations, and panel discussions. Participants will receive upon registration a notebook of readings that complement the presentations. Upon registration, participants will receive a notebook of readings to complement the presentations. There will be ample opportunity for both formal and informal discussions and for interactions among faculty and participants. Social events will allow additional time for participants to interact with key speakers.
Topic Areas:
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Introduction to the elements of the international nuclear nonproliferation regime, and of countries who possess or have sought nuclear weapons;
- Indicators of plutonium and highly enriched uranium production and nuclear weapons manufacturing;
- The IAEA’s strengthened safeguards system;
- Nuclear export controls, and case studies of sensitive technology transfers;
- Demonstrations of commercial satellite imagery uses, and of other verification technologies;
- Multilateral and bilateral verification systems;
- Nonproliferation successes and failures in the Persian Gulf, Northeast Asia, South Asia, and the former Soviet Union.
About the Inaugural Program:
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