Opportunities and Challenges to Strengthen Security of Nuclear Material

Condition of nuclear security regime in any country may be influenced by various changes of politic, social condition, and technology as well. Political change may affect the ability of country to secure nuclear material in the country, and it may also induce unauthorized uses of nuclear material by nonstate actors. Social condition today may be affected by the spread of social media. Social media is changing the people communicating and collecting information. It can be used for both benign or malicious intent that may affect the global nuclear security regime. Product of technology such as advance 3-D printing, unmanned aerial vehicles, and computer security may pose significant proliferation concerns. Furthermore, electronic trading platforms offer new methods of acquisition for malicious actors. Strong nuclear security regime ensure the security of nuclear materials from unauthorized uses by non-state actors. There are opportunities to strengthen nuclear material security in the framework of nuclear security regime: position of the IAEA as prominent organization in promoting nuclear security, the availability of the IAEA nuclear security program in 2018-2021 and the Center of Excellence (CoE) in some region, and supports of developed countries to improve nuclear security regime of developing countries. There are some issue of challenges for global nuclear security: 1) Usage of the nuclear security architecture to promote senior level scenario-based policy discussions at national, regional, and international levels, to support decision making of senior policymakers, 2) Improve coordination and collaboration among CoEs in capacity building activities at regional and international levels, 3) Usage of he International Network for Nuclear Security Training and Support Centres (NSSC Network) for capacity building in nuclear security and to organize regional discussions to identify new and emerging threats and trends, 4) Diverse level of nuclear security and the needs of countries that may affect development of capacity building program. On the other hands there are also issue of nuclear security challenges at national level: 1) Establishment of a national coordinating body to coordinate activities of nuclear security involving various stakeholders, 2) improvement of capacity of technical support organizations to strengthen nuclear security regime, 3) strengthening cooperation and coordination with law enforcement institutions, 4) less number of personnel familiar with nuclear security issues, and there may be also wide gaps in age and knowledge of senior and junior staffs. (author)