Eliminating Stockpiles of Highly Enriched Uranium - Pugwash ...

To interested European parties, this assessment should serve as a pilot study and
guideline into the field of HEU elimination. To the interested Russian parties, on the
other hand, the study provides a possible framework for attracting more and new
European sources of funding to improve domestic - and thus international - nuclear
security. The outcome should be a contribution to a better understanding of the risks
associated with excessive and poorly guarded stocks of highly enriched uranium. To
both sides, the study could serve as a stepping-stone towards closer and focused
cooperation in the field of future HEU elimination, and thus reducing the risk of
nuclear terrorism dramatically.
This study is divided into two parts. The first part discusses why there is urgent
need to focus on the elimination of HEU as a global security-building measure. The
second part focuses on how to accomplish this through a set of technical, political and
economic instruments. The rationale, background and the structure of the report are
stated below:
The point of departure for the assessment (Chapter 2) will be a discussion of
the European and Russian interests in and perspectives on additional HEU
elimination. Here, the key questions are whether there are any nation-specific
priorities and restrictions of importance, and, if so, how these could influence viable
solutions and the identification of a common understanding. The study then moves on
(Chapter 3) to an assessment of HEU in the contemporary threat picture: For instance
a world where terrorists operate and are willing to carry out spectacular suicidal
attacks. This chapter will be followed by a presentation of the experiences from
existing HEU elimination efforts, together with a discussion of how further HEU
elimination could be achieved (Chapter 4).
The second part of the study starting with Chapter 5 describes a possible
European scheme for accelerated HEU elimination in Russia. Here, a number of
relevant technical questions are discussed, including the Russian HEU infrastructure,
logistics, verification and transparency issues. The chapter also deals with some legal,
political and administrative HEU issues in Russia, followed by the concluding chapter
(Chapter 6).
Biographies of the the members of the HEU Elimination Study Group is in
Appendix I. Appendix II contains an overview of the internal and external meetings of
the HEU Elimination Study Group.
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