The Conference on Disarmament (CD) convened yesterday in Geneva, and will periodically meet until March 27, for its first of three sessions in 2015, to discuss issues including nuclear disarmament. NGOs and disarmament groups, such as Reaching Critical Will, have criticized the CD for its lack of action in recent years. In 2013, the CD created an Informal Working Group to devise a clear program of work, but did not succeed in finding a path forward. The working group continued in 2014, and the CD discussed general agenda items, but the group was again unable to agree on a program of work. While a separate UN Office of Disarmament Affairs-sponsored Group of Governmental Experts (GGE) is meeting until Jan. 23 to discuss a Fissile Material Cutoff Treaty (FMCT), substantial FMCT discussions have been dormant in the CD since 2012, when the CD established an open-ended working group that created the GGE.
Conference on Disarmament Meeting Through March 27
NNSA removes high-risk cesium from Vermont
The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) has removed all high-risk cesium-137 from Vermont, making it the 15th U.S. state or territory declared free of high-risk quantities of the radioactive material. This follows a July operation in which a team from Idaho National Laboratory removed a self-shielded cesium irradiator from the University of Vermont in Burlington […]