Moniz: U.S. Submitted Instrument of Ratification for Key Nuke Security Convention to IAEA

The United States has submitted its instrument of ratification for the Amendment to the Convention on the Physical Protection of Nuclear Material (CPPNM) to Yukiya Amano, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, and plans to “very soon” introduce to the U.N. its instrument of ratification for the International Convention for the Suppression of Acts of Nuclear Terrorism (ICSANT), Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz said on Monday in prepared remarks at the IAEA’s 59th General Conference in Vienna, Austria. “The United States strongly urges all countries that have not yet done so to join and fully implement these agreements,” Moniz said.

 

The only international legally binding mechanism for physical protection of nuclear material, CPPNM establishes measures to prevent, detect, and punish offenses relating to nuclear material. The 2005 amendment expands the scope of the original agreement to include domestic nuclear facilities and materials, along with security of material during storage and transport. CPPNMentered into force for all then- and future-ratifying states in July 1987. ICSANT entered into force in 2007 and establishes an international framework to combat nuclear terrorism and prevent proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. It sets measures to strengthen nuclear cooperation between states, criminalize the planning and performing of nuclear terrorism, and provide a “formal definition” of nuclear terrorism, according to the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation.