Online Program

Oral

The recent use of chemical weapons and toxic industrial chemicals in the Syrian civil war, with thousands of innocent civilians killed and injured, has once again illustrated the threat of inhumane, indiscriminate, and banned weapons of mass destruction to humankind, the environment, and public health. Numerous industrial accidents and occasional catastrophes such as the nuclear reactor meltdown at Fukushima, Japan in 2011 also underline the extreme importance of safety and security for high-risk commercial sites, facilities, and transportation. And most recently, the lack of security and accountability at US high-level biological research laboratories has raised attention in 2014 to the public risks of dangerous pathogens. This panel includes well-known experts from the global non-proliferation and threat reduction world, including the Coordinator for Threat Reduction and Global Partnership activities, Bonnie Jenkins, for the US State Department, and Senior Fellow at the Center for Strategic and Internaitonal Studies, Sharon Squassoni, on fissile material proliferation and nuclear security. It will be chaired by the Director of Security and Sustainability at Green Cross International, Dr. Paul F. Walker, who was awarded the prestigious Right Livelihood Award, otherwise known as the “Alternative Nobel Prize,” in Stockholm, Sweden in 2013. These three experts will discuss current threat assessments, covering nuclear, radioactive, chemical, biological, and related toxic materials and also address the many responses in progress, including the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BWC), the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), the New START agreement, the IAEA Safeguards Agreement, the Nuclear Security Summits (NSSs), and related physical security and counter-terrorism efforts, and ongoing national and multilateral suggestions for minimum standards for safety and security.

Session Objectives: Desribe current threat assessments, covering nuclear, radioactive, chemical, biological, and related toxic materials and also address the many responses in progress, including the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BWC), the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), the New START agreement, the IAEA Safeguards Agreement, the Nuclear Security Summits (NSSs), and related physical security and counter-terrorism efforts, and ongoing national and multilateral suggestions for minimum standards for safety and security. Discuss the need for facility risk assessments, peer reviews, “Centers of Excellence,” and on-site inspections will be addressed as well.