According to the White House, "the gravest danger to the American people is the threat of a terrorist attack with a nuclear weapon and the spread of nuclear weapons to dangerous regimes."
The Nonproliferation and Safeguards Group supports efforts to ensure that these threats are not realized, especially by helping to strengthen the safeguards system of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). It also works to strengthen the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT).
The mission of the Material Protection and Control & Accounting Cooperative Programs Division is to provide assistance in reducing the threat posed by weapons-usable nuclear material by cooperating with various Russian Institutes to install sustainable physical protection and material accounting upgrades appropriate for the level of material attractiveness and the threat of theft. BNL currently supports the work of the MPC&A Program at eight Russian nuclear facilities.