Remarks Prepared for Energy Secretary Abraham
As we conclude the Global Threat Reduction Initiative International Partners Conference, I want to take this opportunity to thank all of you for your participation. You have made very important contributions to the global discussion on nonproliferation issues.
These have been very productive meetings, leaving me excited about the prospects for future collaboration to combat the ever-changing proliferation threat. I am confident we have taken some significant steps over these past two days to do just that.
In particular I would like to thank Director Rumyantsev and the Russian Federation for serving as co-sponsors of this Global Threat Reduction Initiative Partners Conference.
I also would like to thank Dr. El Baradei and the IAEA for the support they have provided this event.
More than 575 representatives from over 90 countries attended this conference. Those impressive numbers reflect the fact that we recognize just how profoundly the world has changed since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.
Our response to those events – and to those similar attacks in Bali, Spain, Indonesia, Russia, and elsewhere – needs to be equally profound.
The recent atrocity in Beslan adds further clarity to the challenge we collectively face. When innocent children become the intended target of terrorists interested only in advancing a political agenda, it shows there is no target in this world from which these barbarians would shy and no atrocity they won’t contemplate.
That places a special burden on all of us.
As the holders and users of nuclear and other radioactive materials that serve the peaceful interests and objectives of the civilized world, we, the Member States of the International Atomic Energy Agency, must also be the responsible custodians of these materials and the facilities in which they are located.
If we fail to protect and prevent these materials from falling into the hands of those who would use them for malevolent purposes, the global impact could be catastrophic.
That is why I strongly believe we need an international plan, an international program, with international objectives and international solutions. It is the only responsible way to address what is clearly an international crisis.
That is why your support for the Findings of the Conference is an important marker for moving forward.
Let me highlight a few elements of the Findings of the Conference and note some important follow-on activities for all of us to take up in the months to come.
- First, while expressing concern that unsecured, high-risk nuclear and other radioactive materials pose a threat to the international community, the Conference acknowledged that all States share the objective to help reduce that threat through common but differentiated efforts.
- The Conference also acknowledged the importance of full implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1540. While striving to ensure that Member States enjoy the peaceful use of nuclear energy, the Conference recognized that it is the responsibility of States to identify, control, secure, recover and/or facilitate the disposition of these unsecured high risk nuclear and other radioactive materials with a view towards preventing their theft, diversion, or use for terrorist purposes.
- In addition, we recognized that some States may require assistance in identifying, securing, recovering or dispositioning of these nuclear and other radioactive materials.
- The Conference also expressed support for international cooperation in accelerating existing programs and in creating new programs to identify, secure, recover or facilitate disposition of unsecured nuclear and other radioactive materials that are not currently covered under existing threat reduction programs, and that pose a potential threat to the international community. This should be done without adversely affecting existing funding arrangements.
- Similarly, we expressed support for international efforts to assist, upon request, national authorities in securing and facilitating the disposition of fresh and spent civilian HEU. The Conference also supports efforts to convert, where feasible, civilian research reactors from the use of HEU to LEU fuel with appropriate financial and technical assistance to States that require assistance for these purposes while sustaining research and radioisotope production for peaceful purposes.
- The Conference expressed full support for international efforts in the field of repatriation of fresh and spent HEU nuclear fuel of civilian research reactors.
- And, finally, the Conference encouraged all States to participate actively in the Global Threat Reduction Initiative, through agreement to return, recover, secure or dispose of materials, through financial and technical contributions, or through in-kind assistance, on a voluntary basis or as circumstances and national resources permit.
Of course, expressions of support for these ideas are not enough.
This conference will only be judged a success if we follow on its conclusion with substantive actions aimed at reducing the threat posed by under-secured nuclear and radiological materials.
There are additional opportunities to further build support for activities related to the Global Threat Reduction Initiative. In particular, the following upcoming conferences and meetings were highlighted, and I encourage Member States to actively participate in the following:
- The International Meeting on Reduced Enrichment for Research and Test Reactors in Vienna from November 7-12;
- An Asia-Pacific Regional Conference on Nuclear Safeguards and Security in Australia on November 8-9;
- The March 2005 IAEA Conference in London, to focus on Nuclear Security and Global Directions for the Future;
- The European Nuclear Society’s Research Reactor Fuel Management Meeting in Budapest in April 2005.
- And the June 2005 IAEA Conference in Bordeaux, France, on Radiological Source Safety and Security as a follow-on to the March 2003 International Conference on the Security of Radioactive Sources.
I am pleased that the GTRI Partners Conference recommended that Member States work with the IAEA to establish a mechanism to address opportunities for implementing and coordinating GTRI-related projects and programs.
I would also like to highlight that representatives from my Department will be available here in Vienna during the coming week to conduct consultations with interested countries. This provides an excellent opportunity to immediately begin implementing the Findings of the Conference.
Again, on behalf of Director Rumyantsev, let me thank all of you for your participation. The large turnout and lively debate demonstrate a broadly shared commitment to standing down the first great threat of the 21st century.
I have no doubt we will meet that test, and we will secure a peaceful future for our citizens, if we band together to address a threat which no nation can defeat on its own.
In my address to the IAEA last year, I invoked President Dwight Eisenhower, who said, “If a danger exists in the world, it is a danger shared by all.”
That is as true today as it was a half century ago.
The only difference between that age and the present day is that now, the dangers are graver than in an era defined by a Cold War stalemate.
But President Eisenhower also said that “if hope exists in the mind of one nation, that hope should be shared by all.”
What is apparent at this conference is that the hope of a safe, peaceful world does not just exist in the mind of one nation.
Indeed, looking out on this gathering, I am gratified to see that it is shared so strongly and so sincerely by so many.
That shared hope gives me every confidence that –together – we will ultimately prevail.
Faced with the threat posed by vulnerable nuclear and other radioactive materials in an age of terrorism, it is incumbent upon each of us to band together. We are doing that.
And faced with the choice of either coming together in partnership to secure peace, or taking a gamble that the dangers of terrorism will pass by our door, we are choosing the wiser course.
It is the noble choice to make. And the necessary one.
Because we are making that choice … and because we are taking upon our shoulders these massive responsibilities … I know we will transform the world’s hope for a peaceful, secure future … into everyday reality for our nations and our peoples.
Media contact: Jeanne Lopatto, 202/586-4940
