Japan, Belgium and Italy reduce their stockpiles of nuclear material
Source: Guardian
Japan announced on Monday that it would hand over hundreds of kilogrammes of weapons-grade plutonium and uranium to the United States for dilution and disposal, at the start of a global summit aimed at reducing the threat of nuclear terrorism.
Belgium and Italy also announced agreements with the US on the removal of surplus fissile material, as part of a continuing Washington-led effort to reduce global stockpiles and the number of sites around the world where they are stored.
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The agreement with Japan was hailed by US officials as the greatest success so far resulting from President Obama's 2009 initiative.
A 2013 deadline "to secure all vulnerable nuclear material around the world within four years" has been missed. Since 2010, when the first of three nuclear security summits was held in Washington, 10 countries have rid themselves completely of plutonium and HEU: Chile, Serbia, Turkey, Austria, Mexico, Sweden, Ukraine, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Vietnam. The deadline was extended with the announcement there would be a fourth summit in Washington in 2016.
The two-day meeting in The Hague, involving 53 world leaders, will focus on improving security for global stocks of other radiological isotopes including cobalt 60 and caesium 137 which are used in industry, research and medicine but which could be used in a "dirty bomb" to irradiate a large urban area.
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Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/mar/24/japan-italy-belgium-reduce-stockpile-nuclear-material
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