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The Nuclear Cities Initiative is an initiative which purports to support the now struggling community and structures of post-USSR nuclear research, aimed at preventing nuclear proliferation. [1]
After the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, concerns about the fate of the Soviet "nuclear cities" fell into the hands of Russia. It was in these secret, highly restricted cities that the Soviet Union designed and produced its nuclear weapons. Due to the great importance of these cities, they were generously funded by the Soviet Union. After the fall of the USSR, the 600,000 residents and workers of these cities were left enormous funding problems over the past decade of political, social, and economic difficulties in Russia. [2]
Despite attempts by Moscow to create self-sustainable infrastructure, the attempts ultimately failed. The Russian-American Nuclear Security Advisory Council (RANSAC), now the Partnership for Global Security, responded by launching the Nuclear Cities Initiative. The initiative was brought about after a 1997 report by the RANSAC recommended action to prevent the "nuclear know-how" of the workers in the cities falling into undesirable hands. United States president Bill Clinton and Russian leader Boris Yeltsin made the deal in September 1998, confirming their approval of the overall concept. In 1999 $15 million were procured from American assistance programs, but a Russian financial crisis and Congress' decision to halve funding to $7.5 million reduced funding to the project. [2] [3] [4]
The project at first worked only on a few of the cities; Russia disallowed development elsewhere until success could be proven in a handful of cities first.
In 2001, the U.S. General Accounting Office criticised the progress made so far, and recommended merging NCI and the Initiatives for Proliferation Prevention into a single programme to improve efficiency. By the end of the Clinton administration, over $30 million had been secured for the project, but this was heavily cut by the following Bush administration who reduced expenditure to $6.6 million. However, the 2002 Energy and Water Development Appropriations Act, which merged IPP and NCI, resulted in a substantial increase in funding to $42 million as it brought funding from the Russian Transition Initiatives budget, which was further increased by $15 million after the September 11 attacks. [2] [3] [4]
| 'City' | Nuclear facilities | Nature of activity |
|---|---|---|
| Sarov, Nizhny Novgorod Oblast (formerly Arzamas-16) | Federal Nuclear Center (VNIIEF) and Avangard Electromechanical Plant | nuclear weapon design, nuclear weapon assembly/disassembly |
| Snezhinsk, Chelyabinsk Oblast (formerly Chelyabinsk-70) | All-Russian Scientific Research Institute Of Technical Physics (VNIIEF) | nuclear weapon design |
| Zarechny, Penza Oblast (formerly Penza-19) | Start Production Association (PO Start), [5] Research and Design Institute of Radioelectronic Engineering (NIKIRET) [6] | nuclear weapon assembly/disassembly |
| Novouralsk, Sverdlovsk Oblast (formerly Sverdlovsk-44) | Ural Electrochemical Combine | uranium enrichment |
| Lesnoy, Sverdlovsk Oblast (formerly Sverdlovsk-45) | Elektrokhimpribor Combine | nuclear weapon assembly/disassembly, nuclear weapon component fabrication |
| Ozyorsk, Chelyabinsk Oblast (formerly Chelyabinsk-65) | Mayak Production Association | plutonium production, tritium production, nuclear weapon component fabrication |
| Tryokhgorny, Chelyabinsk Oblast (formerly Zlatoust-36) | Instrument Making Plant | nuclear weapon assembly/disassembly |
| Seversk, Tomsk Oblast (formerly Tomsk-7) | Siberian Chemical Combine | plutonium production, uranium enrichment |
| Zheleznogorsk, Krasnoyarsk Krai (formerly Krasnoyarsk-26) | Mining and Chemical Combine | plutonium production |
| Zelenogorsk, Krasnoyarsk Krai (formerly Krasnoyarsk-45) | Zelenogorsk Electrochemical Plant | uranium enrichment |
The Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty (1972–2002) was an arms control treaty between the United States and the Soviet Union on the limitation of the anti-ballistic missile (ABM) systems used in defending areas against ballistic missile-delivered nuclear weapons. It was intended to reduce pressures to build more nuclear weapons to maintain deterrence. Under the terms of the treaty, each party was limited to two ABM complexes, each of which was to be limited to 100 anti-ballistic missiles.
START I was a bilateral treaty between the United States and the Soviet Union on the reduction and the limitation of strategic offensive arms. The treaty was signed on 31 July 1991 and entered into force on 5 December 1994. The treaty barred its signatories from deploying more than 6,000 nuclear warheads and a total of 1,600 intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) and bombers.
The People's Republic of China has developed and possesses weapons of mass destruction, including chemical and nuclear weapons. The first of China's nuclear weapons tests took place in 1964, and its first hydrogen bomb test occurred in 1967 at Lop Nur. Tests continued until 1996, when the country signed the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT), but did not ratify it. China acceded to the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) in 1984 and ratified the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) in 1997.
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The Nuclear Threat Initiative, generally referred to as NTI, is a non-profit organization located in Washington, D.C. The American foreign policy think tank was founded in 2001 by former U.S. Senator Sam Nunn and philanthropist Ted Turner and describes itself as a "nonprofit, nonpartisan global security organization focused on reducing nuclear and biological threats imperiling humanity."
Civilian Research and Development Foundation (CRDF) Global is an independent nonprofit organization that promotes safety, security, and sustainability through science and innovation. CRDF Global was authorized by the U.S. Congress in 1992 under the FREEDOM Support Act and established in 1995 by the National Science Foundation. This unique public-private partnership promotes international scientific and technical collaboration through grants, technical resources, and training. CRDF Global was originally named the U.S. Civilian Research and Development Foundation for the Independent States of the Former Soviet Union (CRDF).
A tactical nuclear weapon (TNW) or non-strategic nuclear weapon (NSNW) is a nuclear weapon that is designed to be used on a battlefield in military situations, mostly with friendly forces in proximity and perhaps even on contested friendly territory. Generally smaller in explosive power, they are defined in contrast to strategic nuclear weapons, which are designed mostly to be targeted at the enemy interior far away from the war front against military bases, cities, towns, arms industries, and other hardened or larger-area targets to damage the enemy's ability to wage war. As of 2023, tactical nuclear weapons have never been used.
A nuclear triad is a three-pronged military force structure of land-based intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs), and strategic bombers with nuclear bombs and missiles. Countries build nuclear triads to eliminate an enemy's ability to destroy a nation's nuclear forces in a first-strike attack, which preserves their own ability to launch a second strike and therefore increases their nuclear deterrence.
Material Protection, Control, and Accounting (MPC&A) refers to the safeguarding of nuclear assets, including nuclear fuel and weapons. In the United States, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), a component of the Department of Energy, oversees MPC&A as part of its nonproliferation program.
Project Sapphire was a successful 1994 covert operation of the United States government in cooperation with the Kazakhstan government to reduce the threat of nuclear proliferation by removing nuclear material from Kazakhstan as part of the Cooperative Threat Reduction Program, which was authorized by the Soviet Nuclear Threat Reduction Act of 1991.
The G7-led Global Partnership Against the Spread of Weapons and Materials of Mass Destruction is an international security initiative announced at the 2002 G8 summit in Kananaskis, Canada, in response to the September 11 attacks. It is the primary multilateral group that coordinates funding and in-kind support to help vulnerable countries around the world combat the spread of weapons and materials of mass destruction (WMDs).
The Lisbon Protocol to the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty was a document signed by representatives of Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, and Kazakhstan that recognized the four states as successors of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and all of them assume obligations of the Soviet Union under the START I treaty. The protocol was signed in Lisbon, Portugal, on 23 May 1992.
This article shows various estimates of the nuclear weapon stockpiles of various countries at various points in time. This article also shows the number of nuclear weapons tests conducted by each country at various points in time.
Soviet Nuclear Threat Reduction Act of 1991, 22 U.S.C. § 2551, was chartered to amend the Arms Export Control Act enacting the transfer of Soviet military armaments and ordnances to NATO marking the conclusion of the Cold War. The Act sanctions the Soviet nuclear arsenal displacement shall be in conjunction with the implementation of the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe. It funds the Nunn–Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction program.
Former Soviet Union Demilitarization Act of 1992, 22 U.S.C. ch. 68 §§ 5901-5931, is a United States Federal law created to coordinate disarmament efforts with the former Soviet Union. The Act, better known as the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 1993, provided legislative authority for the United States Department of Defense supporting armament retooling, chemical demilitarization, and nonproliferation initiatives.
European Leadership Network (ELN) is a pan-European think-tank focusing on European foreign, defence and security issues based in London, United Kingdom. The ELN's Director is Sir Adam Thomson, former UK Permanent Representative to NATO.
Soviet Scientists Immigration Act of 1992 granted authorization for engineers and scientists from the post-Soviet states to acquire employment within America. The Act of Congress implemented specific provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act providing United States visas for former Soviet Union foreign nationals classified as scientific immigrants being employed in the United States.
The Republic of Kazakhstan, once a republic of the Soviet Union, was a primary venue for Soviet nuclear weapon testing from 1949 until 1989. Following the collapse of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) in 1991, Kazakhstan became the fourth-largest nuclear power in the world and hosted a considerably large weapon support infrastructure due to its reliance on the Soviet nuclear program as a means to develop its own local economy. Besides the nuclear program, Kazakhstan was also a prominent site of Soviet programs of biological and chemical weapons.
