Steps for Rebuilding U.S.-Russian Nuclear Security Cooperation

Cooperation between U.S. and Russian nuclear scientists and engineers represents animportant opportunity for rebuilding U.S.-Russian relations. The United States and Russia possessmore than 90 percent of the world’s nuclear weapons, the world’s largest stocks of weapons-usablenuclear material, and the world’s largest nuclear complexes, giving them a special responsibility fornuclear security and preventing nuclear terrorism. Unfortunately, in 2014, the Obama administrationunwisely cut off U.S.-Russian cooperation on nuclear energy R&D and nuclear science after Russia’sseizure of Crimea and military intervention in eastern Ukraine. Predictably, Russia responded bycutting off almost all cooperation on nuclear security (which it had long had concerns about for otherreasons). Although the most urgent nuclear security upgrades had already been completed, there wasstill important joint work to do to ensure that sophisticated thieves could not steal nuclear materialand provide it to terrorists. Indeed, nuclear security work is never “done,” as nuclear security, likesafety, must focus on continuous improvement in the face of evolving threats, changing technologies,and newly discovered vulnerabilities. Today, both President Trump and Russian President VladimirPutin say they want a more cooperative U.S.-Russian relationship. Toward that end, they shoulddirect their nuclear establishments to restart cooperative work on nuclear energy, nuclear security,nuclear science, nuclear safety – and, eventually, on topics such as developing new procedures andtechnologies for arms control verification as well. Such cooperation will not be like the Nunn-Lugarassistance of old, which is no longer appropriate or politically sustainable in either Washington orMoscow. Instead, it should be a partnership-based approach, based on principles of equality, mutualrespect, and mutual benefit, with each party funding its own participation. Despite the deep disputesthe two governments still have, such a partnership approach at the technical level is a realisticprospect. This paper focuses on one aspect of such renewed cooperation, providing an initial outlineof cooperative initiatives that could be pursued on nuclear and radiological security.