As 2005 comes to a close, there is good news to report on several government efforts aimed at stemming the spread of nuclear weapons. We are moving in the right direction, though not as fast nor as far as we could.

The Nunn-Lugar program has destroyed 6,760 nuclear warheads and thousands of missiles and launchers.  “The experience of Nunn-Lugar shows that, with determination and hard work, we can deny terrorists access to these devastating weapons,” says Senator Lugar.  Carnegie experts in their report, Universal Compliance, recommend accelerating the program, “in partnership with Russia, to fully protect Russian nuclear weapon-usable material by 2008.”
The Global Threat Reduction Initiative program has now secured 122kg of highly-enriched uranium from research reactors in 7 nations.  This program, too, should be accelerated, to completely secure the tons of nuclear material by the end of 2008.
The Megatons to Megawatts program this year passed the halfway point in its goal to downblend 500 tons of Russian HEU.  Too much material remains in uncertain security, however, and “Russia and the United States should agree to double the pace from 30 to 60 metric tons of HEU per year,” according to the Carnegie report. (Read More)