The Nuclear Security Summit should be renamed the Nuclear Security and Safety Summit. During the two-day meeting in Seoul, world leaders paid less attention to nuclear safety than nuclear security.
The summit was successful as the world leaders were unanimous in their determination to prevent nuclear terrorism, namely keeping nuclear materials out of the hands of terrorists and rogue states.
U.S. President Barack Obama unveiled an epoch-making plan to eliminate enough plutonium for about 17,000 nuclear weapons and turn it into electricity. He espoused a world without nuclear weapons, although possibly not in our generation. He vowed to reduce American and Russian deployed nuclear warheads to their lowest levels since the 1950s.
He said even North Korea and Iran can access peaceful nuclear energy.
He noted that nations have moved to improve the safety of nuclear facilities. He highlighted the astonishing benefits that nuclear technology has brought to the lives of the people.
Obama was, however, vague on seeking ways of upgrading safety at nuclear power plants.
Experts claim that the Seoul summit was successful as countries have fulfilled up to 80 percent of national commitments for nuclear nonproliferation. However, the United States, nations in the European Union and other countries have slashed budgets for sustaining global nonproliferation efforts. Despite the reduction of financing, they should seek ways of raising efficiency for the nonproliferation.
Expanding the agenda is also necessary. China and many other countries have yet to join the U.S.-sponsored Proliferation Security Initiative, a multilateral agreement intended to interdict shipments of weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) and related technology by land, sea, or air. The summit should cast a wider net to monitor the global trafficking of nuclear materials. Without China’s cooperation, North Korea’s exports of nuclear technology will be possible.
A multilateral approach to engage problematic nuclear powers such as North Korea, Iran and Pakistan are necessary. It is encouraging for the main countries ― the United States, China, Russia and Japan ― to have joined in condemning North Korea’s planned launch of the long-range missile next month. Washington alone cannot prevent these countries from going nuclear.
The participants showed relative inattention to the safety of civilian nuclear energy. The wrenching meltdown and ensuing leak at Japan’s Fukushima nuclear reactors should have drawn much attention of the world leaders in Seoul.
Pyongyang upstaged the summit. However, the world leaders strengthened cooperative measures to combat the threat of nuclear terrorism, secure nuclear materials and related facilities and to prevent illicit trafficking in nuclear materials.
The U.S. Foreign Relations Council points out that the next summit should continue to address the five core issues ― keeping promises of commitments toward nuclear nonproliferation, adequate financing for sustaining the global nonproliferation drive, more global engagement with problematic nuclear powers, global monitoring of WMD trafficking and upgrading the safety of civilian nuclear reactors. In particular, global coordination on using nuclear energy safely should receive added attention.