Did You Know?

Export control laws and regulations help protect the economic, security, and policy interests of a nation by regulating the transfer of critical technology and information to foreign entities.

U.S. export control responsibilities are divided primarily among the Department of Energy, Department of State, Department of Commerce, Department of Defense, and Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Currently, there are 161 signatories to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT); these signatories commit to ​“prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and weapons technology, to promote cooperation in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy and to further the goal of achieving nuclear disarmament and general and complete disarmament.”¹

Opportunity

Formulating and implementing nuclear nonproliferation policy depends not only on understanding nuclear weapons development and proliferation, but also, crucially, on understanding how the underlying commercial nuclear industry operates. This creates an opportunity for Argonne to leverage our expertise in the nuclear nonproliferation field, as it relates to reactors in the commercial nuclear industry and also provide technical expertise to policy makers.

Solution

Argonne staff have knowledge of nonproliferation policy, specifically in the fields of domestic and international safeguards and export control compliance and interdiction, and expertise in the development, production, and use of nuclear reactors and related fuel cycle technologies. Argonne’s approach to engagement is to leverage the capabilities of not only the SSS Division, but also the entire Laboratory, to best instruct and inform those with responsibilities in nuclear nonproliferation.

Results

Argonne has organized and supported the annual ​“Nuclear Nonproliferation Seminar: Reactors and the Commercial Nuclear Industry” for more than 8 years, providing this technical expertise to nuclear and export policy officials and analysts, including export control specialists and licensing officials, imagery analysts, embassy officials, Congressional staff members, and other individuals working in this field.

Additionally, for those new to nuclear nonproliferation, Argonne has organized and supported the annual ​“Nuclear Nonproliferation Seminar” in Washington, D.C. for more than 25 years, focusing on the various federal agencies and contracting organizations with roles in U.S. nuclear nonproliferation policy and implementation.

¹ United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs, Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), https://​www​.un​.org/​d​i​s​a​r​m​a​m​e​n​t​/​w​m​d​/​n​u​c​l​e​a​r​/npt/