The Trilateral Initiative: IAEA Verification of Weapon - origin Plutonium in Russia and the USA

Action #8 of the 13 points agreed in the 2000 NPT Review Conference Final Document call ed for the completion and implementation of the Trilateral Initiative. D espite the significant progress and the promises made while the Initiative was underway, and despite the wide support from the intern ational community at the time , the Trilateral Initiative was abruptly ended in 2002. The agreed follow - on actions never occurred. This paper reviews the Trilate ral Initiative , how it came into being, what was accomplished and what was left to do, and what might be done now, 12 years later, to return this to the nuclear disarmament agenda.