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Author : S. Surchina
Third Secretary, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, Candidate of Political Science
NUCLEAR SAFETY is one of the world's major se-
curity issues. The terms "nuclear safety" and "nuclear
security" usually denote different notions.
It follows from these definitions that nuclear safety
implies protection of nuclear materials and nuclear fa-
cilities while nuclear security implies protection of nu-
clear power plants. This article purports to put nuclear
safety in the general context of nuclear issues and to
look at some aspects of cooperation between states
in measures to ensure nuclear safety.
It is in the past five to seven years that the international community has started taking significant
interest in political aspects of the nuclear safety and nuclear security issues.
Nuclear safety chiefly involves physical protection of nuclear materials and facilities. Physical
ways of preventing unauthorized acquisition of nuclear materials and defending nuclear facilities
and means of transportation of nuclear materials against sabotage have been subjects of national
and international debates for a long time.
One of the most important aspects of the convention is that it declares unauthorized use of
nuclear material a crime. Today, 153 states are parties to the convention. The accord applies to
"nuclear material used for peaceful purposes while in international nuclear transport" and "to
nuclear material used for peaceful purposes while in domestic use, storage and transport." The
convention mandates that the states parties take all necessary measures to ensure compliance
with established levels of physical protection of nuclear materials (Article 5).
Another major international agreement on nuclear safety is the International Convention for the
Suppression of Acts of Nuclear Terrorism, signed in 2005 and based on a draft proposed by
Russia in 1998. By January 15, 2016, 115 states had signed and 100 ratified the convention.
A special role among other key international mechanisms for nuclear risk prevention belongs to
the Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism, which is an example of successful practical
cooperation between nations. The GICNT was launched by the Russian and U.S. presidents in
a joint announcement in St. Petersburg on July 15, 2006. The main purpose of the initiative is
to help universalize international agreements on nuclear safety, primarily the International Con-
vention for the Suppression of Acts of Nuclear Terrorism and the Convention on the Physical
Protection of Nuclear Material and Nuclear Facilities, and to help states parties to those accords
fulfill their commitments under them.
To sum up, the nuclear safety issue has become established as a highly important aspect of in-
ternational cooperation. The significance attached to it in top-level contacts between nations
http://interaffairs.ru
Some Aspects of International Cooperation on Nuclear Safety
Measures