Reducing nuclear danger through intergovernmental technical exchanges on nuclear materials safety management

Abstract

The United States (U.S.) and Russia are dismantling nuclear weapons and generating hundreds of tons of excess plutonium and high-enriched uranium fissile nuclear materials that require disposition. The U.S. Department of Energy and the Ministry of the Russian Federation for Atomic Energy (Minatom) organizations are planning and implementing safe, secure storage and disposition operations for these materials in numerous facilities. This provides a new opportunity for technical exchanges between Russian and U.S. scientists that can establish an improved and sustained common safety culture for handling these materials. An initiative that develops and uses personal relationships and joint projects among Russian and U.S. participants involved in nuclear materials safety management contributes to improving nuclear materials nonproliferation and to making a safer world. Technical exchanges and workshops are being used to systematically identify opportunities in the nuclear materials facilities to improve and ensure the safety of workers, the public, and the environment.