US News

World leaders agree to secure nuclear material

By Mike McCarthy Apr 14, 2010, 1:58 GMT

President of the United States Barack Obama hosts a press conference at the conclusion of the Nuclear Security Summit at the Washington Convention Center in Washington DC, USA, 13 April 2010. EPA/MICHAEL REYNOLDS

Washington - US President Barack Obama said Tuesday that more than 40 countries have agreed during an unprecedented summit in Washington to take steps to prevent nuclear material from being used in a terrorist attack.

Obama praised the participating countries for committing to 'meaningful' measures to secure vulnerable nuclear stockpiles within four years, and to reduce the use of dangerous material in civilian reactors.

'Because of the steps we've taken as individual nations, and the international community, the American people will be safer, and the world will be more secure,' Obama said as he concluded the summit.

Leaders and top officials from 47 countries attended the largest summit hosted by a US president in more than six decades, agreeing to strengthen existing international safeguards for nuclear material and give a greater role in the effort to the International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN nuclear monitoring body.

European Union President Herman Van Rompuy said the IAEA needs a greater role in keeping dangerous nuclear materials out of the wrong hands.

'The EU believes the IAEA should be the engine in this area and consequently be given the qualifications and resources necessary,' he said.

Reining in the threats arising from vulnerable nuclear material has emerged as a top priority for Obama. He outlined the goal in a speech a year ago in Prague.

In opening Tuesday's full day of talks, Obama described the potential of a terrorist nuclear attack as among the greatest threats to the world and warned that the danger has increased since the end of the Cold War.

'Terrorist networks such as al-Qaeda have tried to acquire the material for a nuclear weapon. And if they ever succeeded, they would surely use it,' Obama said. 'Were they to do so, it would be a catastrophe for the world, causing extraordinary loss of life and striking a major blow to global peace and stability.'

'Two decades after the end of the Cold War, we face a cruel irony of history,' Obama said. 'The risk of a nuclear confrontation between nations has gone down, but the risk of nuclear attack has gone up.'

The countries agreed to move away from highly enriched uranium - the key ingredient in nuclear weapons - for power plants and adopt much safer low-enriched fuel.

The United States and Russia pledged to dispose of large amounts of weapons-grade plutonium stockpiles.

Obama announced plans to hold a follow-up summit in 2012 in South Korea.

During the summit, Ukraine announced plans to give up highly enriched uranium by 2012 as part of a broader, long-standing effort led by the United States and Russia to take back the dangerous fuel and convert civilian reactors to low-enriched uranium.

Canada and Mexico announced plans to abandon the use of highly enriched uranium and send their stores of the fuel back to the United States. Right before the summit, Chile shipped the last of its weapons-grade uranium to the United States.

The nations agreed to cooperate in law enforcement and intelligence to apprehend and prosecute individuals involved in the trade of illicit material on the black market.

The US and Canada called on countries to contribute to a goal of 10 billion dollars toward a global fund to promote nuclear security.

While the summit was focused on securing nuclear stockpiles, Iran's continued defiance of international demands to halt uranium enrichment and come clean about its nuclear activities has been a sub-text at the gathering. Iran denies Western allegations that its nuclear programme is designed to achieve weapons capability.

The topic was high on the agenda when Obama met Monday with Chinese President Hu Jintao as part of an effort to persuade a reluctant Beijing to support tougher UN Security Council sanctions. A senior White House official said after the meeting that China had signaled a willingness to cooperate in drafting sanctions.

'I want to see us move forward boldly and quickly, to send the kind of message that will allow Iran to make a different calculation,' Obama said at his concluding press conference.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy said the time has come for countries to act decisively in the face of Iran's continued defiance: 'The moment of truth is now.'

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who was not invited to the summit, refused to back down, telling state television Tuesday that Iran's 'nuclear rights and path are untouchable' despite US-led pressure.

'I believe that the ballyhoo over the nuclear issue is just an excuse by the US to weaken Iran and get domination over the Middle East,' Ahmadinejad said.

Getting China on board for Iran sanctions would be a huge step for Obama, who already has support from Britain and France, which along with China, Russia and the United States are permanent members of the Security Council. Even Russia has shown a willingness recently to consider sanctions.

Obama met with the leaders of India, Pakistan, South Africa, Jordan and a number of other countries before convening the formal session.

Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov signed a deal to implement an agreement requiring both countries to dispose of 34 metric tonnes of weapons-grade plutonium from existing stockpiles.

The amount is enough to build 17,000 nuclear weapons, the US State Department said.

The United States has pledged to provide Russia with 400 million dollars for Moscow's effort. Both countries plan to begin in 2018, and it is expected to take years to complete. Washington and Moscow agreed to the plan in 2000, but until now could not come to terms on how to implement it.

The summit came after a US-Russian pact to reduce their existing nuclear arsenals by one-third, a treaty Obama signed Thursday with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.

It also followed Obama's announcement of a shift in US defence policy that pledged to not use nuclear weapons against countries that do not have them. That policy, however, excluded Iran and North Korea because they are not seen as cooperating on non-proliferation.