NUCLEAR SECURITY IN KAZAKHSTAN A GLOBAL LEADER IN NUCLEAR RESPONSIBILITY

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1 NUCLEAR SECURITY IN KAZAKHSTAN A GLOBAL LEADER IN NUCLEAR RESPONSIBILITY Kazakhstan's President Nursultan Nazarbayev walks in front of the monument "Stronger than Death", dedicated to the closure of the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site, in Semei on June 18, November 2014

2 Table of Contents Introduction p. 3 The Semipalatinsk Legacy and Kazakhstan s Nuclear Disarmament p. 4 Controlling Fissile Materials: Kazakhstan s International Commitments p. 5 The Vision of a Nuclear Weapons-Free World and G-Global p. 7 Fuelling Non-Proliferation: The International Uranium Bank p. 8 Conclusion - The Importance of New Thinking p. 9 About Kazakhstan s UNSC Campaign p. 10 2

3 Nuclear Security in Kazakhstan A Global Leader in Nuclear Responsibility Certainly when it comes to [nuclear] nonproliferation, there are few countries that can match Kazakhstan s experience and credibility. US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, October 3 rd Introduction Proliferation of nuclear weapons and nuclear terrorism are two of the most serious threats of the 21 st century. 1 More than 2,000 tons of plutonium and highly enriched uranium, intended for both peaceful and military uses, are currently spread across hundreds of sites in 25 countries. A significant portion of this material is not effectively secured, and safeguarding it should be a top priority worldwide. 2 Should it fall into the wrong hands, a ten kilo-ton nuclear bomb could obliterate a city populated by millions within seconds. 3 Some states are also looking to nuclear weapons as a security guarantee, raising fears of a destructive nuclear arms race with heightened risk surrounding both miscalculation and non-state actors acquiring these weapons. Provided it is used peacefully, however, nuclear power is essential to meet present and future electricity demand. World energy demand is projected to double by 2035, and today about 2 billion people already lack steady access to electricity. 4 Expressed in numbers, the demand for electricity will have grown by 70% to almost TWh two decades from now. 5 The challenge today is how to expand the use of nuclear power, all the while preventing the spread of nuclear weapons. 6 Concerted disarmament of nuclear weapons combined with more effective controls of fissile material are the two steps crucial to solving this dilemma, and Kazakhstan is at the centre of this effort. Kazakhstan is negotiating the final details for hosting an international bank for low-enriched uranium, and it voluntarily renounced its nuclear arsenal two decades ago. This twin achievement is unique and surely, in part, the reason why President Barack Obama dubbed his Kazakh counterpart, Mr. Nursultan Nazarbayev, a model leader at the 2010 Nuclear Security Summit in Washington. 7 1 Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Building a Nuclear Safe World: The Kazakh Way, p. 97 and 2 Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Building a Nuclear Safe World: The Kazakh Way, p Graham Allison, Nuclear Terrorism (New York: Henry Holt & Company, 2004), p html 7 Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Building a Nuclear Safe World: The Kazakh Way, p

4 The Semipalatinsk Legacy and Kazakhstan s Nuclear Disarmament A victim of nuclear testing during the Soviet era, Kazakhstan has been a staunch promoter of non-proliferation, and the removal and destruction of highly-enriched uranium. Over four decades, Soviet authorities conducted 456 nuclear tests at the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site in northern Kazakhstan, the total explosive power of which was equal to 2,500 atomic bombs of the type dropped on Hiroshima. 8 More than 1 million people were exposed to radioactive fallout during these atmospheric and underground tests, and vast tracts of land are now contaminated in Semipalatinsk and surrounding areas. 9 Responding to the public outcry over Semipalatinsk, President Nazarbayev shut it down on August 29 th 1991, shortly before Kazakhstan s Independence was declared. 10 Other major nuclear test sites in the world were closed thereafter - Nevada in the USA, Russia s Novaya Zemlya, China s Lop Nur, and Moruroa in French Polynesia. 11 In many ways, August 29 th was a decisive moment in reducing the danger of a nuclear apocalypse, and was recognised as such when the 64 th UN General Assembly in 2009 proclaimed this date the International Day Against Nuclear Tests. 12 In May 1992, shortly after the closure of Semipalatinsk, Kazakhstan renounced possession of nuclear weapons and began the arduous process of dismantling the nuclear arsenal it had inherited from the USSR. Encompassing more than 1,400 nuclear warheads and 110 ballistic missiles, it was the fourth largest stock of nuclear weapons in the world after those of Russia, the USA, and the Ukraine. This voluntary nuclear disarmament was not a consequence of Kazakhstan s inability to maintain nuclear weapons. Kazakhstan had both the experts and necessary infrastructure to conduct military nuclear programs and could have joined the exclusive club of nuclear weapon states, should it have desired to do so. 13 But Kazakh President Nazarbayev did not venture down this path. The President s conviction that security guarantees stem not from nuclear weapons but from sustainable socio-economic development partly explains this move 14, as does Kazakhstan s determination to promote global security: National interests in this Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Building a Nuclear Safe World: The Kazakh Way, p

5 most sensitive of areas, President Nazarbayev has stated, were put aside for the higher goal of international peace and security. 15 In few spheres was this principle more evident than in the process surrounding the removal and destruction of Kazakhstan s weapons-grade nuclear material. Over ten years Kazakhstan, Russia, and the United States jointly secured the remnants of the Soviet nuclear program in Kazakhstan, beginning with Project Sapphire in 1994 which removed approximately 600 kilograms of highly enriched uranium from the Ulba Metallurgy Plant. More recently, in November 2010, Kazakhstan along with Russia, the USA, the UK, and the IAEA, removed spent nuclear fuel from the reactor BN-350 and safeguarded nuclear material equivalent to hundreds of nuclear bombs. 16 In many ways, Kazakhstan s renunciation of nuclear weapons served as testimony to the type of state Kazakhstan aspired to become a responsible country whose security is guaranteed by prosperity, and a country whose contribution to global security far outweighs the modest size of its population. It was, to quote UN Secretary General Ban KI-Moon, a true declaration of independence, 17 which not only has served Kazakhstan well but inspired others to do the same. Controlling Fissile Materials: Kazakhstan s International Commitments Developing and strengthening the international legal basis of nuclear security is essential for Kazakhstan and it has a strong record in this area, having acceded to practically all Conventions pertaining to nuclear security. 18 Kazakhstan became a party to the Treaty on Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons on December 13, 1993, and shortly thereafter a member of IAEA. Kazakhstan was among the first to sign the Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty in 1996, and subsequently ratified it in Kazakhstan ratified the START 1 Treaty in 1992 and four years later, in September 1996, all Kazakhstan s 104 ICBMs had been safely removed to Russia and destroyed, three years ahead of the schedule laid out in the Treaty. Acknowledging the IAEA's leading role in ensuring global nuclear security, 20 Kazakhstan considers the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty the cornerstone of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Building a Nuclear Safe World: The Kazakh Way, p

6 non-proliferation movement, and views the early entrance into force of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty as critical to strengthening it. 21 In 2011, Kazakhstan ratified the Amendments to the Convention on the Physical Protection of Nuclear Materials, and Kazakhstan has officially confirmed its acceptance of The Code of Conduct on the Safety and Security of Radioactive Sources. A national register of ionizing radiation sources has also been created for these purposes. 22 Kazakhstan presently ranks 15 th in the world in the Nuclear Threat Initiative Index, a public assessment of global nuclear materials security conditions. 23 This is shortly behind such advanced countries as the United Kingdom, the USA, and Japan -- ranked 11 th to 13 th and ahead of Italy, Israel, and many other high-income countries. 24 All nuclear activities in Kazakhstan are placed under IAEA s safeguards, and Astana has implemented a number of additional measures to control fissile materials. For example, a Nuclear Security Training Center, aimed to improve security and safeguards training for nuclear facilities in Kazakhstan, is being set up in cooperation with the USA; 25 a Second Line Defense Program is being implemented with the same partner, equipping border checkpoints in Kazakhstan with radioactive materials controls system; Kazatomprom and Kazakhstan s Nuclear Physics Institute are establishing a database on defining the origins of nuclear materials; and Kazakhstan also participates in the IAEA database on nuclear smuggling and illicit trafficking. 26 Kazakhstan has been a member of the Nuclear Suppliers Group since May 13 th In July 2005, Kazakhstan joined the Krakow Proliferation Security Initiative, a global effort to stop WMD trafficking; 27 a year later it became one of the founding members of the Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism. In 2008 Kazakhstan was accepted into the Zangger Committee, which serves as the faithful interpreter of the NPT s Article to harmonise nuclear export control policies. 28 To oversee all issues related to nuclear security, including controlling nuclear materials and raw uranium and strengthening export, customs and border controls, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Building a Nuclear Safe World: The Kazakh Way, p

7 Kazakhstan established in 2010 a Commission on Non-Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction, which operates under the Office of the Kazakh President. 29 Finally, Kazakhstan has mediated conflicts relating to the nuclear fuel cycle. For example, the P5 countries and Iran recently held two crucial meetings in Almaty concerning the latter s nuclear programme. The talks have been widely recognised as the most successful thus far and former U.S. Senator Sam Nunn advocated further engagement of Kazakhstan s expertise in this and related international problems. In his words, Kazakhstan s diplomacy could be brought to bear in places like North Korea and Iran I don t think Kazakhstan s leadership has been given enough recognition by our country and the G8, nor do I think we ve used the power of their example nearly to the degree we could. 30 The Vision of a Nuclear Weapons-Free World and G-Global Kazakhstan s position, like that of IAEA, is that general and complete nuclear disarmament and the abolition of nuclear testing are essential preconditions for worldwide nuclear security. 31 Kazakhstan s renunciation of nuclear weapons and the creation of a Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone in Central Asia (CANWFZ) in 2009, the first of its kind in the northern hemisphere, are two manifestations of this vision of a world free of nuclear weapons. By committing to IAEA s Additional Protocol, CANWFZ legally binds Central Asian countries to enhanced IAEA safeguards on civilian nuclear material and international security standards on nuclear facilities. 32 Kazakhstan has pushed for the establishment of similar zones in other parts of the world. For example, the Astana Declaration for a Nuclear-Free World, adopted at the International Forum for a Nuclear-Free World held in 2011 in Kazakhstan, expressed support for nuclear weapons-free zones in the Middle East and elsewhere. Kazakhstan also proposed the adoption of a Universal Declaration of a Nuclear-Weapon-Free World at the Global Nuclear Security Summit in Washington in 2010 and in Seoul in In the same spirit, Kazakhstan has launched the ATOM project, an international campaign designed to create awareness surrounding the human and environmental devastation caused by nuclear weapons testing. 34 Kazakhstan s emergence as a world centre on non-proliferation was, perhaps, most visibly expressed at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Building a Nuclear Safe World: The Kazakh Way, p Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Building a Nuclear Safe World: The Kazakh Way, p

8 international conference From a Nuclear Test Ban to a Nuclear Weapon-Free World, held in Kazahstan in Gathering parliamentarians, mayors, and civil society representatives from all corners of the world, it was the closest to a prototype of the global antinuclear parliamentary assembly that the world has seen thus far. 35 Kazakhstan is also, along with 27 others, a member of the G-8 Global Partnership Against the Spread of Weapons and Materials of Mass Destruction. The initiative is a pledge by G8 members (now G7) to allocate $20 billion over a decade towards the elimination and security of WMD installations in Russia and the post-soviet space. While important and welcomed, it should be recognised that many countries remain outside of the G7 and G20 formats. As such, Kazakhstan does not consider these frameworks fully effective in dealing with global problems such as nuclear security. 36 Instead, due consideration must be given to those countries which are not members, perhaps especially since three of the G7 member states possess nuclear weapons and those which remain outside, with few exceptions, do not. Kazakhstan G-Global initiative, assembling around 190 countries, is a response to this gap and is predicated on the belief that a breakthrough in global nuclear safety is only possible by adopting a universal and non-discriminatory approach. 37 President Obama said as much when he, at the Nuclear Security Summit in Washington in 2010, declared that we could not have this summit [in Washington] without [President Nazarbayev s] presence. 38 The statement can be seen as an affirmation that a country s weight on global nuclear security questions should not be determined by the size of a country s nuclear arsenal, but rather by the amount of effort a country has put into non-proliferation. Fuelling Non-Proliferation: The International Uranium Bank With 53 nuclear plants presently under construction in the world and almost 500 others planned to be operational within fifteen years, uranium demand has soared. 39 This development affects Kazakhstan directly since it is the world s largest producer of uranium, accounting for no less than 38% of global output in Kazakhstan s uranium is currently exported to Russia, China, Japan, South Korea, India among others, and it has civil nuclear cooperation agreements in place with the countries mentioned, along with Great Britain and several others. Kazakhstan s footprint in this sphere over the next few decades will be significant, as will the responsibilities. Measures have therefore been taken to address nuclear security concerns. For instance, Kazakhstan s National Atomic Company Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Building a Nuclear Safe World: The Kazakh Way, p

9 Kazatomprom, together with IAEA and the USA s Department of Energy, is presently conducting a pilot project to introduce a system of accounting and control of raw uranium. 40 The former Soviet space has been widely viewed as one of the world s regions most susceptible to nuclear theft. In a remarkable turnaround, Kazakhstan is now negotiating an agreement with the IAEA to host the world s first international nuclear bank of low enriched uranium. The choice of Kazakhstan for this bank is not accidental given Kazakhstan s historical commitment to nuclear security. As noted by Sam Nunn: The threat of nuclear terrorism puts us in a race between cooperation and catastrophe. The kind of cooperation we see again and again from Kazakhstan on a continuing basis can help us win the race. 41 That Kazakhstan maintains good relations with all existing nuclear powers and also, crucially, those countries which presently are seeking a civilian nuclear-power sector, is a further asset when it comes to hosting the bank. 42 The United States has already pledged $50 million to the cause, Norway $5 million, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates have offered $20 million each, and the EU has pledged 25 million Euros. 43 Conclusion - The Importance of New Thinking Kazakhstan s list of commitments to nuclear security is long, and the examples noted here are not exhaustive. The British legislator Lord Waverley captured the scope of these commitments succinctly when he said: Kazakhstan remains one of the few examples that revive and live up to the spirit of the Pugwash Conferences founded by Nobel scientists Bertrand Russell, Albert Einstein, Joseph Rotblat and others, days before Einstein s death as a parting gift to rein in the weapons of mass destruction that scientists had created. 44 Kazakhstan s journey, from a country that was a liability to nuclear security when the USSR collapsed, to a key player at the forefront of this struggle, attests to how political will can override old thinking, and how global nuclear security can be achieved if others, like Kazakhstan, put words into deeds Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Building a Nuclear Safe World: The Kazakh Way, p Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Building a Nuclear Safe World: The Kazakh Way, pp Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Building a Nuclear Safe World: The Kazakh Way, p

10 ABOUT Kazakhstan s Bid to Secure a Non-Permanent Seat on the United Nations Security Council for 2017/18 In September 2013, Kazakhstan announced its bid to secure a seat as a nonpermanent member of the United Nations Security Council in the years 2017/18. As a regional leader and global partner in matters of energy security, and a valuable contributor to international peacekeeping missions, Kazakhstan wishes to bring its unique experience and expertise to bear on some of the pressing challenges currently facing the UNSC. Its bid is based on four central pillars: food security, water security, energy security and nuclear security. KazakhstanUNSC.com, its publications, and its occasional newsletters and bulletins aim to set out, in clear and concise terms, the main policy priorities of Kazakhstan s UNSC bid. The multilingual website also supplies details of political, economic and social developments inside Kazakhstan and about its international foreign policy initiatives. Kazakhstan has the experience, political will and resources to make a valuable contribution to the global challenges faced by the UNSC. It is fully engaged in its commitment to assume such responsibilities on the Security Council. Home to over 130 different ethnic groups, Kazakhstan is nothing less than a microcosm of the United Nations. In the spirit of a committed and principled partner in the family of nations, the Republic of Kazakhstan has announced its bid to become a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council in the years 2017/18. Subscribe here for all the latest news, publications and developments relating to the bid. 10