The Department has
agreed to assist Russia's MINATOM in improving the physical security
and accounting of highly enriched uranium and plutonium that is currently
being held in Russia's laboratories, research institutes, and nuclear
materials processing plants. This amendment marks the first time Russia
has agreed to accept U.S. assistance to apply safeguards to materials
that could be used directly to manufacture nuclear weapons. This assistance
package has been under negotiation with Russia for nearly a year.
Though the assistance
provided to Russia under this agreement has not been fully defined,
it is likely that it will include: improved sensors for monitoring entry
and exit of nuclear materials sites; computer systems for materials
accounting; and more precise assaying equipment to measure amounts of
highly enriched uranium and plutonium.
The Department's
Cooperative Threat Reduction (Nunn-Lugar) program is assisting
countries of the former Soviet Union to dismantle nuclear weapons systems
and to deal with related problems such as preventing the theft or diversion
of nuclear weapons materials.
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