Report on the Trilateral Initiative. IAEA verification of weapon-origin material in the Russian Federation and the United States

Just over five years ago, the Trilateral Initiative was launched to investigate the technical, legal and financial issues associated with IAEA verification of weapon-origin fissile material in the Russian Federation and the United States. Since then, the Joint Working Group has developed concepts and equipment suitable for such a verification mission, anticipating that the States would submit classified forms of fissile material to IAEA verification under new agreements developed for this purpose. This article summarizes the accomplishments to date and identifies the future steps foreseen under the Trilateral Initiative. As there is no legal commitment on the Parties to this Initiative as yet, the issues considered are still changing. Since it was launched, the Initiative has been given a sense of importance and weight, raising the expectations of the international community. The Final Document of the 2000 Conference on the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), for example, under the review of Article VI of the Treaty, includes the statement to 'complete and implement the Trilateral Initiative'. It was launched following independent statements by the President of the United States beginning in 1993, and by the President of the Russian Federation in 1996. It is an Initiative between the IAEA, the Russian Federation and the United States that is in the context of Article VI of the NPT. The intention is to examine the technical, legal and financial issues associated with IAEA verification of weapon origin and other fissile material released from defense programmes in those two countries