On 23 October 2012, the Vienna Center for Disarmament and Non-Proliferation (VCDNP) hosted a seminar titled "Preventing Nuclear Terrorism: Policy and Technology Solutions." The event featured presentations by US Department of Energy's Deputy Administrator for Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation Anne Harrington and US State Department's Deputy Assistant Secretary for Nonproliferation Programs Simon G. Limage.
The speakers elaborated on the missions, current initiatives, and programs undertaken by their respective departments to help prevent nuclear terrorism and illicit trafficking in nuclear material, and to secure and reduce stockpiles of nuclear materials at home and abroad.
The speakers provided insights into the US government's risk assessments and threat perceptions that inform the design of nuclear terrorism prevention policies and programs. They touched upon the impact of President Obama's 2009 Prague speech and other US-initiated global efforts to secure vulnerable nuclear material. A number of questions from the audience were focused on the Nuclear Security Summits, including on the prospects for their continuation, expansion of the list of participating countries, and assessment of the overall influence of the summit process on the acceleration of fissile material clean-up, consolidation, and elimination.
