Nuclear Security for a Sustainable Future

In May 2024, policymakers and experts from across the world will gather at the International Conference on Nuclear Security: Shaping the Future (ICONS 2024), hosted by the IAEA in Vienna, to discuss how the global community can collectively sustain and strengthen the progress made in nuclear security. Events such as the 2023 Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP28) and the first Nuclear Energy Summit, held in March 2024, signal that the nuclear security community must focus its attention on what lies ahead. Nuclear is becoming an indispensable part of the global strategy to meet energy and climate goals, bringing with it the challenge of enabling access to the relevant technologies in a secure manner. While this has always been the mission of nuclear security practitioners, their task is more important now than ever before. As the peaceful uses and applications of nuclear technology become more widespread in pursuit of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), we must increase our emphasis on making these technologies secure and on mitigating existing or emerging threats.