NTI, CENESS advocate sustainment of International Atomic Energy Agency initiative

A new Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI) and Center for Energy and Security Studies (CENESS) report seeks U.S. and Russia support in sustaining International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) work.

The Future of IAEA Safeguards: Rebuilding the Vienna Spirit through Russian-U.S. Expert Dialogue resulted from a two-year project launched by NTI and CENESS to address the growing divergence between the United States and Russia at the IAEA.

The document, officials said, addresses establishing and maintaining regular Russian–U.S. channels and developing a common set of principles for safeguards implementation; strengthening the state evaluation process; increasing transparency and communication; drawing conclusions based on IAEA safeguards activities; and planning for and investing in the IAEA’s future.

The project united leading experts from Russia and the United States as a means of building mutual understanding of the political and technical challenges to fully implementing the IAEA’s safeguards mission, building support for more productive cooperation and collaboration between the two countries within that area.

Project co-chairs Corey Hinderstein of NTI and Anton Khlopkov of CENESS maintain the future credibility and sustainability of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), and the nuclear non-proliferation regime depends on the IAEA – and the IAEA depends on its two most powerful sources of resources, expertise, and rhetoric. They said it is in the world’s best interests for the United States and Russia to work together.