The challenges and opportunities of making nuclear material declarations

This paper argues that national declarations of nuclear materials hold the potential to support additional nuclear weapons reductions and nuclear security objectives, and to spur renewed international technical engagement. In doing so, it outlines the types of information and types of materials that could and should be included in baseline nuclear material declarations and other forms of declarations. It also suggests how states can structure declarations about specific types of materials about which information has traditionally been restricted. In articulating the need for declarations of historical production of specific materials in support of verifying declarations of current holdings, the paper identifies several steps that states can and should take today to prepare for the declaration process. It also explores in detail the rationale of one potential preparatory step, reforming nuclear material accounting practices.