Canada lauded for better nuclear material security
Lack of similar global action feeds terrorist threat, U.S. monitor says
— Canada ranks near the very top in the world at safeguarding its weaponsgrade nuclear material stockpile but is surrounded by a “disturbing lack” of unified global action to frustrate nuclear terrorism, warns a respected U.S. group tracking data on weapons of mass destruction.
Canada places second, behind only Australia, in the latest nuclear materials security index of 25 countries possessing at least one kilogram of weapons-usable nuclear materials, according to the Washington-based Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI).
That’s up from a 10th-place tie with the United Kingdom and Germany in NTI’s inaugural 2012 index. The jump earns Canada special NTI recognition this year for the most improved national performance, along with Belgium and Japan.
Nuclear-armed states Pakistan and India, rising nuclear player North Korea and suspected nuclear contender Iran all finished in the index’s basement. (151 other nations possessing less than one kilogram of weaponsgrade material were ranked separately.)
“Global nuclear security is only as strong as the weakest link in the chain — and that makes it imperative that sovereign states exercise their own responsibility in the context of global co-operation,” said NTI, co-chaired by former U.S. senator Sam Nunn and media mogul and philanthropist Ted Turner.
Wednesday’s release of the new edition of the index is intended to help set the stage for a global nuclear security summit in the Netherlands in March. The report urges political leaders and their governments to build a global system for guarding the key fissile ingredients for a nuclear weapon — highly enriched uranium or separated plutonium or the plutonium content in fresh mixed oxide fuel.
Western security experts believe elements associated with Islamic terror group al-Qaida have persistently sought the technical knowledge and components to build a simple gun-type nuclear weapon, requiring about 40 kilograms of HEU.
“Today, nearly 2,000 metric tons of weapons-usable nuclear materials are stored at hundreds of sites around the world; some of those materials are poorly secured and are vulnerable to theft or sale on the black market,” the advocacy group said in the report.