Participants complete Phase 1 of International Partnership for Nuclear Disarmament Verification

Participants in the International Partnership for Nuclear Disarmament Verification (IPNDV) recently gathered in Buenos Aires, Argentina, for the fifth plenary meeting of the initiative, marking the completion of Phase 1 of the IPNDV.

Representatives more than 25 countries both with and without nuclear weapons, along with National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) members and other participants, attended the meeting.

IPNDV is a public-private partnership between the U.S. Department of State and the Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI), through which participating countries collaborate to improve their understanding of the challenges related to the verification of nuclear disarmament and identify potential strategies for addressing those challenges.

The two-year initial phase of the project involved the monitoring and inspection of a hypothetical nuclear weapon dismantlement process by three working groups. The groups concluded that despite technical challenges, there is a possible path forward multilaterally monitored nuclear warhead dismantlement. This path may involve technologies and inspection procedures that include barriers to protect classified information.

“The inclusion of both states with and without nuclear weapons in this unique partnership demonstrates that we can make progress to solve nuclear disarmament verification challenges in a multilateral setting while still protecting highly sensitive nuclear weapons design information,” Michele Smith, NNSA’s deputy director for its Office of Nuclear Verification, said.

Smith represented the United States as a co-chair of the Technical Challenges and Solutions working group during Phase 1 of INPDV. She will co-chair the Technologies for Verification working group during Phase II.