Obama seeks concrete action on nuclear security

Apr 10, 2010, 13:39 GMT

Washington - US President Barack Obama will urge nations to agree to take steps to ensure nuclear-related material is safe and unaccessible to terrorists when he hosts an unprecedented international summit next week in Washington, advisers said Friday.

Obama wants to develop an action plan to set standards for securing nuclear stockpiles and accomplish the goal within four years, the advisers said. That could include pursuing new agreements and strengthening existing ones, they said.

'The threat of nuclear terrorism is a very serious threat,' said Gary Samore, the White House's senior director for nuclear non- proliferation.

Obama will host the two-day summit that begins on Monday and includes leaders and representatives from 47 countries. Thirty- eight heads of state are expected to attend as well as chiefs of the United Nations and its nuclear monitoring body, the International Atomic Energy Agency, Ben Rhodes, a deputy national security adviser, said.

Rhodes said this is the largest gathering of heads of state hosted by a US president in decades.

'Nuclear security has not been addressed by this many nations at this level before,' Rhodes said.

Many nations will be asked to take concrete steps to demonstrate it is serious about safeguarding nuclear material. That will include urging nations to convert nuclear reactors from using highly enriched uranium, which can be used in a weapon, to the much safer low enriched uranium, Samore said.