NTI says progress on protecting nuclear facilities wanes

Progress on protecting nuclear materials and facilities against theft and sabotage has slowed significantly over the past two years, the Nuclear Threat Initiativeʻs 2020 NTI Nuclear Security Index has found.

The decline in the rate of improvement to national regulatory structures and the global nuclear security architecture bucks a trend of substantial improvements between 2012 and 2018.

NTI says the decline in attention to nuclear security has waned without the Nuclear Security Summit, which ended in 2016, or similar high-level international events. It comes at a time when terrorist capabilities and growing cyber threats contribute to a more complicated and unpredictable environment, NTI officials add.

The report notes that geopolitical tensions and the COVID-19 pandemic are undermining cooperation and exposing the limits of how countries cope with cross-border threats.

NTI points out that while some countries have continued to take steps to strengthen nuclear security regulations, the number of countries improving their scores in the NTI Index has declined across all three rankings.

“Given the challenging backdrop for the sharp decline in progress, it is more important than ever to identify shortfalls and to call for governments, industry, and the international community to once again step up their efforts to prevent a catastrophic attack using stolen nuclear materials or an act of sabotage that could further shake global foundations,” NTI Co-Chair and CEO Ernest J. Moniz said.

In the category of nuclear materials security, Australia ranks first for the fifth time with the best nuclear security conditions among the 22 countries with weapons-usable nuclear materials. It also ranks first in the sabotage ranking of 46 countries that have nuclear facilities at which an act of sabotage could result in a dangerous release of radiation.

Among the chief concerns, NTI says regulatory requirements for nuclear security are not comprehensive, with significant weaknesses in insider threat prevention, security culture, and cybersecurity. Also, countries do not have adequate measures in place to address the human factor of nuclear security.

To reverse the overall declines, NTI says countries must strengthen and sustain political attention on enhancing nuclear security regulations. In addition, they must focus on building a more effective global nuclear security architecture.