NTI NUCLEAR MATERIALS SECURITY INDEX: BUILDING A FRAMEWORK FOR ASSURANCE, ACCOUNTABILITY, AND ACTION

: Securing nuclear materials is one of the most important steps to prevent an act of nuclear terrorism. In 2010, the Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI) set out to assess the global status of nuclear materials security and to measure progress over time by developing the Nuclear Materials Security Index (NTI Index), a first-of-its-kind public assessment of nuclear materials security conditions in 176 states around the world. Developed with the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), the first edition of the NTI Index was released in January 2012 and updated again in January 2014. The NTI Index assesses nuclear materials security conditions in 25 states with one kilogram or more of weapons-usable nuclear material against five categories of 19 indicators. Indicators include total quantities of material and number of sites in a state, security and control measures, whether a state has signed international treaties or participates in other international efforts to strengthen nuclear security, domestic commitments to implement security obligations, and the state’s overall risk environment. The NTI Index also assesses nuclear materials security conditions in 151 countries with less than one kilogram of or no weapons-usable nuclear material across a subset of relevant indicators. This paper will describe the impetus for developing the NTI Index and the methodology employed by NTI and the EIU. It will also detail the key changes made since the 2012 edition, and summarize the results and recommendations for future action.