Activities at the Integrated Support Center for Nuclear Nonproliferation and Nuclear Security, and Trilateral Harmonization among Japan, ROK, and China

In April 2010 at the Nuclear Security Summit in Washington, D.C., Japan made a commitment to establish an integrated support center for nuclear nonproliferation and security. This center would support capacity building for strengthening nuclear nonproliferation and security mainly in the Asian region. The Integrated Support Center for Nuclear Nonproliferation and Nuclear Security (ISCN) was established under the Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) in December 2010 in response to this commitment. Since its establishment three and a half years ago, ISCN has developed its activities, having already conducted 60 training courses for the nuclear nonproliferation and security fields and having trained 1,707 participants from 43 countries (including Japan) and three international organizations. It can be said that it is a significant achievement of the Nuclear Security Summit process. Within the Asian region, China and Republic of Korea (ROK) also committed at the 2010 Security Summit to establishing similar training centers. ROK established one in February 2014, and China started construction on its center in October 2013, aiming to commence activities in 2015. In 2012, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) started discussions with these three countries for the harmonization of the contents of their centers’ training activities. The purpose of these discussions is to avoid duplication of effort, since three centers of a similar kind will be established in the Asian region. In these discussions, ISCN has taken the lead to find ways to make this harmonization a reality. This paper will present the result of ISCN’s activities over the past three and a half years; the current situation of the cooperation among the three countries, Japan, ROK, and China; and the future efforts to be made.