| Nonproliferation and disarmament successes registered around the world By Jacquelyn S. Porth Washington -- The recently completed U.S.-Albania munitions destruction project marked another success in the effort for disarmament and nonproliferation of weapons. Safety and environmental concerns were paramount in the project because it involved destroying Albania’s largest and most dangerous stockpile of surplus anti-ship mines, torpedoes and aerial bombs. Since many of these munitions had been stored in the vicinity of residential neighborhoods and even schools, removal and permanent elimination boosted public safety significantly. In all, more than 2,700 metric tons were destroyed, including 40,000 fuses, bombs, detonators, sea mines and torpedo parts. This destruction effort ensures that none of these munitions ever will be sold illegally to state sponsors of terror or end up in the possession of terrorists. (See related article.) The Albanian Ministry of Defense identified the munitions to be destroyed by armed forces explosive ordnance disposal teams at key military bases. The United States financed team training. The project was carried out under the auspices of the State Department’s Nonproliferation and Disarmament Fund (NDF). It is one of many projects that the fund selectively tackles. Operating quietly since 1994, the fund tends to finance high-priority or especially difficult nonproliferation projects when money is unavailable through other agencies or departments that typically are involved in disarmament issues. A project could be undertaken in any corner of the world as long as it sets out to do the following: • halt proliferation of nuclear, chemical or biological weapons and associated technologies and delivery systems; • destroy or neutralize existing conventional weapons or weapons of mass destruction, related materials and delivery systems; • limit the spread of sophisticated conventional weapons and related technologies and delivery systems; and • track, control and secure dangerous fissile or radiological materials or chemical agents and pathogens. In addition to Albania, the fund also supported removal of poorly secured nuclear fissile material -- enough highly enriched uranium to produce several nuclear weapons -- from Belgrade’s Vinca Institute for Nuclear Materials in Serbia to the security of an International Atomic Energy Agency storage facility in Russia. (See related article.) It also helped move elements of Libya’s nuclear infrastructure to secure facilities in the United States. An interagency NDF review panel evaluates proposed project funding requests to determine viability for reducing a proliferation threat. It also ensures that sufficient funding is not available elsewhere. SMALL INVESTMENTS RESULT IN SUBSTANTIAL PAYOFF The fund has a small staff of policy officers, program officers and negotiators who can deal directly with governments or contract specialists anywhere in the world once a nonproliferation project is approved. For example, the panel approved more than $3 million to fund the destruction of fermenting vats in Kazakhstan that could have been used to produce agents for biological weapons. Sometimes, a relatively small amount of money, such as a half million dollars, is all that is needed to eliminate chemical weapons production equipment and facilities, such as was done in the Balkans, where chemical agents were secured safely. In another case, an investment of $11 million covered the cost of negotiating the elimination of tactical ballistic surface-to-surface missiles from Libya, Bulgaria, Slovakia, Hungary and Poland. Conventional weapons in the form of shoulder-launched missiles are a particular threat to passenger airliners. For that reason, the fund provided $5 million to eliminate unsecured man-portable air defense systems, or MANPADS as they are known, in various parts of the world. Fund efforts take different forms, ranging from transporting, storing and guarding weapons to helping military-oriented industries convert to civilian work or setting up science and technology centers to engage former Soviet scientists and engineers in new nonmilitary areas of work. (See related article.) For example, the fund facilitated cooperation between the Moscow-based Kurachatov Institute of Atomic Energy and the U.S. Department of Energy to find a way to convert Russian plutonium reactors to civilian power generation plants and to create a Russian Web site on export procedures for dual-use materials. It is all in a day’s work for the fund’s staff members, who are focused on neutralizing dangerous weapons and are ever ready to supplement and buttress diplomatic initiatives to promote bilateral and multilateral nonproliferation and disarmament activities. For more information on U.S. policies, see Arms Control and Nonproliferation.
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