The
Nuclear Security Summit, started by President Obama in 2010, aims to
address this problem by encouraging governments to secure and eliminate
weapons-usable nuclear materials. The fourth of these meetings begins
Thursday in Washington, with more than 50 world leaders, including
President Xi Jinping of China, expected to attend, though not President
Vladimir Putin of Russia.
In
the last six years, such meetings have persuaded 14 countries and
Taiwan to give up their weapons-usable plutonium and highly enriched
uranium. Twelve others, including France, Russia and the United States,
have decreased their stockpiles of nuclear materials. Many states have
made nuclear-related facilities more secure and have strengthened
cooperation against nuclear smuggling. Nuclear detection equipment has
been installed at more than 300 international border crossings, airports
and seaports.
But
progress is slow, even though the need for enhanced protections has
become more urgent, given the concerns that terrorist groups are seeking
nuclear technology. More than 1,800 metric tons of nuclear material remain stored in 24 countries, much of it vulnerable to theft,
according to former Senator Sam Nunn, co-chairman of the Nuclear Threat
Initiative, a nonprofit advocacy group. An increasing number of
countries are pursuing nuclear energy projects, even though they lack
the legal, regulatory and security frameworks to ensure that such
programs, designed to produce power, not weapons, are protected, he
said.
Experts
say that many officials do not believe that nuclear terrorism is a
serious threat. Even if the chances are small that terrorists will
acquire a nuclear weapon, the fact that the potential consequences are
devastating should propel summit participants to aggressively plug
security gaps
Another
effort to focus attention on nuclear threats is more quixotic but still
valuable. The Marshall Islands, which decades ago was the site of 67
nuclear tests conducted by the United States, has brought suit at the
International Court of Justice at The Hague against nations with nuclear
weapons for failing to move toward disarmament, as required by the
Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and international law in general.
The
suit was initially filed against all nine nations with nuclear weapons,
including the United States, Russia, France, China and Britain, which
signed the treaty, as well as India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea,
which are not treaty members. But only Britain, India and Pakistan have
recognized the court’s jurisdiction and so are the only ones now subject
to the litigation. The court is expected to decide later this year
whether the suit can proceed. Though no one expects the court to force
the nuclear states to disarm, a verdict against them could increase
pressure on them to exercise more restraint.
Since
the end of the Cold War, the United States and Russia have sharply
reduced their nuclear arsenals, but Moscow has rejected further
negotiations and both countries are pursuing costly new modernization
programs. India, Pakistan and North Korea are also expanding their
programs. There are signs that
overall stockpiles of nuclear weapons and nuclear material material may
again increase. That disturbing trend must be reversed.
