U.S.-Russian Strategic Lab-to-Lab Partnership for Enhancing Responses to Future Nuclear Nonproliferation Challenges

During the May 2004 US/Russian Weapons Laboratory Directors meeting, participants agreed to initiate a six-labii strategic partnership to enhance nonproliferation in the nuclear fuel cycle. This partnership is in direct response to “calls to action” from Presidents Putin and Bush and other international leaders. In this partnership, the U.S. 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 U.S. and Russian nuclear weapons laboratories in a manner similar to past lab-to-lab initiatives in basic science and technology, nonproliferation, combating terrorism, dismantlement transparency, and warhead safety and security. These laboratories possess unique technical capabilities and experiences that can be more effectively applied in a partnership with each other. Additional US and RF national laboratories and institutes may join and strengthen the partnership as it matures. A joint laboratory steering committee has been formed to guide the partnership, to coordinate with government officials and to ensure linkages to other global nonproliferation initiatives. In this paper we will describe the formation of the partnership, the initial activities of the joint steering committee, and the first round of technical areas identified for joint exploration.