Thursday 11 July 2019

Illicit trafficking in nuclear and other radioactive materials: separating myths from realities

an article by Sergiy Kondratov (Addresses: National Institute for Strategic Studies, Kyiv, Ukraine) published in International Journal of Nuclear Governance, Economy and Ecology Volume 4 Number 3 (2019)

Abstract

The paper addresses some entrenched myths concerning illicit trafficking in nuclear and other radioactive materials as well as, connected with them, threats of proliferation of nuclear weapons as well as nuclear and radiological terrorism in terms of insufficient reliability and accuracy of data and information on illicit trafficking incidents contained in relevant databases

 Arguments are presented that, at least partly, the problem is derived from the dubious definitions given to the term 'illicit trafficking in nuclear and other radioactive materials' in IAEA documents, and domination of a regulatory approach to this term definition as well as data reporting and processing procedures. Some measures to improve analytical efforts to minimise deficiencies in this field are proposed.


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