NSOI: Nuclear Smuggling Outreach Initiative |

The Nuclear Smuggling Outreach Initiative (NSOI) seeks to cooperate with countries where the smuggling threat is greatest to assist them to improve their abilities to prevent, detect, and respond to incidents of nuclear smuggling.

U.S. and New Zealand Sign Anti-Nuclear Smuggling Arrangement – On April 7, 2009, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and New Zealand Foreign Minister Murray McCully signed an arrangement for cooperation on nonproliferation assistance. Through this arrangement, New Zealand will contribute directly to an NSOI-developed project complementing a U.S. program to equip Kazakhstan’s borders with radiation monitors and provide related infrastructure and training. This is New Zealand’s second contribution to an NSOI project. In 2007, New Zealand contributed to a similar project to secure Ukraine’s border. Click here for the official press release on the signing ceremony.

Republic of Georgia Signs Addendum to Joint Action Plan – On February 27, 2009, the U.S. Ambassador to Georgia and the Deputy Ministers of the Georgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Internal Affairs, Ministry of Defense, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources, and the Ministry of Justice, signed the “Addendum to the Joint Document of U.S. and Georgian Delegations on Georgia’s Priority Needs to Improve Its Capabilities to Combat Nuclear Smuggling.” The Addendum addresses the degradation of Georgia’s anti-nuclear smuggling capabilities resulting from the August 2008 conflict and additional needs that became apparent since the original joint action plan was signed on February 2, 2007. With this new agreement, the Georgian government commits to take additional steps to improve its anti-nuclear smuggling capabilities, and the U.S. government agrees to fund or seek foreign funding for an expanded list of assistance projects to support Georgia’s anti-smuggling efforts. Click here for the expanded project list. Media coverage by Rustavi 2 can be viewed here.

South Korean Contribution – On December 4, 2008, the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to provide funding through DOE to equip several border posts in Ukraine with radiation detection equipment. The equipment will be installed by DOE’s Second Line of Defense program. This contribution was secured through a joint effort by NSOI and DOE. Last year, South Korea helped to secure radioactive sources in Ukraine through a similar MOU.

Successful Forensics Workshop – NSOI analyst Jennifer Mastros attended the Nuclear Forensics and Law Enforcement Awareness Workshop in Karlsruhe, Germany on December 2-4. The primary purpose of the workshop, which was co-sponsored by the U.S. Department of State, the European Union’s Institute of Transuranium Elements, and the International Science and Technology Center, was to identify assistance projects to improve national responses to illicit uses of nuclear or radiological materials. More than 70 law enforcement and scientific experts from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkey, and the U.S. participated in the event.

Global Initiative Legal and Regulatory Frameworks Conference – On September 4 and 5, the NSOI team participated in a conference in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, to foster discussion on the implementation of appropriate criminal and/or civil liability for terrorists and those that facilitate acts of nuclear terrorism. The NSOI team, the U.S. Department of Justice, and several NSOI partner countries made presentations on the importance of adequate legal authorities for prosecuting nuclear smuggling. The George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies and the U.S. Department of Defense organized this conference under the auspices of the Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism.

U.S.-Ukraine Nonproliferation Working Group Meeting – At the semiannual meeting in Kiev on July 31 and August 1, NSOI Coordinator Michael Stafford and his Ukrainian counterpart reviewed Ukrainian progress in implementing the U.S.-Ukrainian Joint Action Plan and U.S. progress in securing funding for assistance projects supporting that plan.

Republic of Armenia Signs Joint Action Plan – On July 14, 2008, the Republic of Armenia became the fifth country with which NSOI completed an action plan when Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian signed the “Joint Action Plan between the Government of the United States of America and the Government of the Republic of Armenia on Combating Smuggling of Nuclear and Radioactive Materials.”

Joint NSOI-UNODC Legislative Drafting Workshop in Ukraine – NSOI and UNODC's Terrorism Prevention Branch (TPB) held their first joint workshop on legislative drafting in Ukraine from March 11-13, 2008. This national workshop, entitled the Legislative Drafting Expert Workshop on the Criminal Law Aspects of the Universal Legal Framework Against Nuclear Terrorism, sought to strengthen Ukraine's national legislation and international legal cooperation against nuclear smuggling and terrorism. UNODC's legal experts, in cooperation with a representative from the U.S. Department of Justice's Counterterrorism Section, developed recommendations for necessary legislative reforms in partnership with a broad delegation of Ukrainian experts. The goal of these recommendations is to allow Ukrainian law to fully prosecute all cases of nuclear smuggling, including scams, and to identify the necessary steps to bring Ukraine's laws into compliance with the relevant international conventions on terrorism.

Kyrgyz Republic Signs Joint Action Plan – On September 30, 2007, the Kyrgyz Republic became the fourth country with which NSOI completed an action plan when Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Kyrgyz Foreign Minister Ednan Karabayev signed the “Program of Cooperation between the Government of the United States of America and the Government of the Kyrgyz Republic on Combating the Smuggling of Nuclear and Radioactive Materials.” For the U.S. Department of State press release on this event, click here.