The Vienna Center for Disarmament and Non-Proliferation organized and hosted a series of events in September, a number of which were associated with the 2013 IAEA General Conference. Additionally, the VCDNP held an intensive course on nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament on 23-27 September 2013.
A roundtable discussion during the IAEA General Conference
On 17 September, the VCDNP, jointly with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Women in Nuclear (WiN), and the International Network of Emerging Nuclear Specialists (INENS), organized an interactive roundtable discussion about roles and opportunities for women in the nuclear field, held as a side event of the 2013 IAEA General Conference. The event, titled Women in All Things Nuclear, attracted a large number of representatives from national delegations, Vienna-based international organizations, and diplomatic missions. The event was moderated by Laura Rockwood, Section Head, Non-Proliferation and Policy Making Section, Office of Legal Affairs, IAEA. Ambassador Xolisa Mabhongo of South Africa provided welcoming remarks and informed participants about the annual Women in Nuclear symposium, to be held in South Africa in October 2013. The lively discussion at the event involved interventions from a number of distinguished guests: the United Kingdom's Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Energy and Climate Change) Baroness Sandip Verma, IAEA Deputy Director General Janice Dunn Lee, Ambassador Ana Teresa Dengo Benavides of Costa Rica, Ambassador Toshiro Ozawa of Japan, and many others. The discussion focused on the roles, opportunities, and remaining challenges for women in the nuclear field, as well as ways of promoting opportunities in a broad set of nuclear-related professions. Participants offered a range of specific recommendations to increase awareness of these opportunities, particularly among school-age girls and young women, including dissemination of information about professional development and education programs, and strengthening mentoring and networking efforts. The event was highlighted in the IAEA Top Stories and Features.
Briefing by the Netherlands' Ambassador Piet de Klerk
On 18 September, the VCDNP organized a seminar by the Netherlands' Ambassador Piet de Klerk, Sherpa to the Nuclear Security Summit 2014. The seminar, titled "The 2014 Nuclear Security Summit in The Hague: Plans, Progress, and Expectations," offered an overview of past Nuclear Security Summits (NSS) and a glimpse of the next summit's agenda. The event was held at the Permanent Mission of Japan to the IAEA and included the participation of many distinguished guests. VCDNP Executive Director Elena Sokova moderated the discussion.
Amb. de Klerk outlined the history of Nuclear Security Summit process since its inception in 2010 and then discussed the objectives of the upcoming March 2014 NSS in The Hague and the current state of affairs of the preparatory work. Following the initial NSS in 2010, he explained, the initial objectives and priorities were further specified and amended and now fall into two general categories: first, reducing reliance on and the quantity of highly-enriched uranium (HEU) in the civilian sector, and second, improving the "international security architecture," to be achieved through: the empowerment of international organizations, particularly the IAEA; entry-into-force and strengthened implementation of relevant treaties and resolutions; international cooperation and technical exchange; and engagement of the private sector. Amb. de Klerk reviewed the progress of implementation of these objectives, which constitute the framework of the upcoming NSS. In the course of a thorough consultation process in preparation for next year's summit, the following areas emerged as promising the greatest potential for progress: relations between government, industry, and regulatory bodies; protection of nuclear materials and other radioactive sources; and assurance mechanisms that do not involve disclosure of sensitive classified information.
Side Event of the 2013 IAEA General Conference
Verification Research, Training and Information Centre (VERTIC)
On 19 September 2013, the VCDNP hosted a side event of the 2013 IAEA General Conference organized by the Verification Research, Training and Information Centre (VERTIC). VERTIC's activities cover a wide range of issues, from negotiation of verification provisions to monitoring and verification, enforcement, and confidence-building activities. VERTIC's senior legal officer, Scott Spence, and senior researcher, Larry MacFaul, offered a glimpse into some of these activities. Scott Spence gave a presentation describing the organization's program on legislative assistance and implementation of certain international instruments relating to nuclear security; he also noted that VERTIC had been working with the government of Indonesia to prepare an "implementation kit" on nuclear security to be presented at the 3rd Nuclear Security Summit in The Hague in March 2014. Larry MacFaul followed up with a presentation on the VERTIC project on the IAEA Additional Protocol, the aim and scope of which is to provide support to states that seek to adopt the Additional Protocol and are interested in enhancing familiarity with its implementation.
On 23 September, the VCDNP hosted a panel discussion titled "2012-2015 Review Cycle of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT): the State of Play."The panel focused on the review process of the NPT in the run-up to the 2015 NPT Review Conference. It was chaired by director of the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies, Dr. William Potter, and included Ambassador Alexander Kmentt, Director for Disarmament, Arms Control and Non-Prolifeartion at the Austrian Foreign Ministry; Ambassador Khaled Shamaa, Permanent Representative of the Arab Republic of Egypt to the International Organizations in Vienna; and Ambassador Cristian Istrate, Permanent Representative of Romania to the United Nations (Vienna).
The speakers agreed that, in spite of multiple setbacks and obstacles, the implementation of the NPT and the review process have been successful. They noted, however, serious problems that need to be tackled in the run-up to the 2015 Review Conference, including the issues of universality, the challenges created by North Korea's withdrawal (including, but not limited to, the use of Article IV of the NPT to create a nuclear infrastructure that could be used for a weapons program after the withdrawal), the slow progress of negotiations on the Iranian nuclear program, the failure to convene a conference on a weapon of mass destruction-free zone in the Middle East in 2012, and conflicting interests of nuclear and non-nuclear states, in particular with regard to Article VI of the NPT. In this regard, they emphasized that the future of the NPT is not preordained, and that there is a need for serious efforts by all state parties to strengthen the nuclear non-proliferation regime and to prevent its fragmentation.
The speakers discussed in detail the prospects of agreeing on a final document at the 2015 conference and suggested that such a document is not an appropriate measure of success or failure of the event. Instead, state parties need to concentrate on achieving substantive progress on outstanding issues; such progress will be a more desirable outcome than the formality of a document.
