US-Russian Strategic Lab-to-Lab Partnership for Enhancing Responses to Future Nuclear Nonproliferation Challenges—An Update

During the May 2004 United States/Russian Weapons Laboratory Directors meeting, participants agreed to initiate a six-lab strategic partnership to enhance nonproliferation in the nuclear fuel cycle. In this partnership, the United States and Russian nuclear weapons laboratories will address scientific and technical nonproliferation issues related to the continuing world-wide development of nuclear energy and the need to understand the implications of this development for managing the spread of nuclear materials and nuclear technology. The effort draws upon the core competencies of the six United States and Russian nuclear weapons laboratories. Last year, we reported on the initial meeting for the formation of the partnership and the first round of technical areas identified for joint exploration. This paper describes the initial twelve technical projects selected for collaboration at the January 2006 steering committee meeting and the operating principles of the partnership steering committee.