Pictured: S&GS Co-directors - Frank N. von Hippel, Professor of Public and International Affairs; Harold A. Feiveson, Senior Research Policy Analyst, Program on Science and Global Security and Lecturer of Public and International Affairs; Christopher F. Chyba, Professor of Astrophysical Sciences and International Affairs
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The Woodrow Wilson School has announced that the School's Program on Science and Global Security has been awarded a $2.2 million dollar grant by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation for the creation of an International Panel on Fissile Materials (IPFM), to strengthen the analytical basis for policies that reduce global stockpiles of fissile materials and the number of locations where such materials can be found.

The panel, made up of international nuclear experts, will issue its first annual report in March 2006 on the fissile material agenda as well as topical reports. The annual report will review progress in reducing quantities of fissile materials worldwide and their vulnerability to misuse or theft. An IPFM website will provide access to authoritative, public information on fissile-material issues.

Fissile materials, notably highly enriched uranium and plutonium, are the key ingredients required to make nuclear weapons. The nuclear-weapon states still have enough fissile materials in their weapon stockpiles for tens of thousands of nuclear weapons. Enough plutonium has been separated in civilian reprocessing programs to make a similarly large number of weapons. And enough highly enriched uranium is in civilian reactor fuel to make over one thousand Hiroshima-type bombs, a design well within the potential capabilities of terrorist groups.

"The threat that fissile material could fall into the hands of a terrorist organization is real, but not enough is being done to secure it, putting us all at risk," said Jonathan Fanton, president of the MacArthur Foundation. "The first step to neutralizing that danger is to track how, where, and under what conditions these materials are stored, and to understand that they can be protected. This international panel will raise awareness about the problem while demonstrating that, with the right combination of technical knowledge and political will, our world can be made safer. This is a straightforward idea that could have important consequences for global security."

The panel will meet twice a year in rotating capitals. It will be co-chaired by two nuclear physicists: Professor Frank von Hippel of the Woodrow Wilson School and Professor José Goldemberg of the University of São Paulo, Brazil. Its founding members will include experts from the U.S., China, Russia, the United Kingdom, India, Pakistan, Brazil, Germany, Japan, Mexico, Norway, South Africa, South Korea, and Sweden. The panel will likely expand to up to twenty members. The School's Program on Science and Global Security, co-directed by von Hippel, will provide administrative and research support.

"We are extremely grateful to the MacArthur Foundation for its support of the International Panel on Fissile Materials," said Frank von Hippel. "There is an urgent need to find more effective ways to prevent nuclear proliferation and nuclear terrorism. The simplest and most direct route is through control and drastic reductions of stockpiles of fissile materials and their elimination wherever possible. These are also key steps to advance irreversible nuclear disarmament."

The MacArthur grant will support IPFM through the 2010 Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference. The NPT is a landmark treaty to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons, achieve nuclear disarmament, and promote cooperation in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy. It entered into force in 1970 and a total of 187 nations are parties, including five nuclear-weapon states ( United States, Russia, Britain, France and China).

The member nations review the operation of the Treaty every five years. In the May 2005 review conference, they failed to agree even to reaffirm the commitments made at the 2000 conference, reflecting a growing crisis over the future of the nonproliferation and disarmament regime.

"Unless major progress is made in the next five years to reverse the erosion of the nuclear weapon states' NPT commitments and the spread of nuclear weapon production capabilities to non-weapon states, the Treaty will increasingly be seen as irrelevant," said José Goldemberg. "This panel can serve an essential role in supporting the NPT as the key framework for cooperative efforts to mitigate pressing nuclear dangers."