Environment & Climate Change

15 Items

teaser image

Book Chapter

Russian Import of Foreign Spent Fuel: Status and Policy Implications

| 15-19 July 2001

Russia has recently approved legislation allowing it to offer to import foreign spent fuel for storage, reprocessing, or even disposal in Russia. This represents a potentially dramatic development in the decades-long history of efforts to establish internationally collaborative approaches to management of spent fuel and nuclear wastes.

teaser image

Book Chapter

Discussion of China's Nuclear Transparency Options

| July 01, 2001

This paper will discuss how much nuclear transparency China can afford to adopt in light of the changing international security context. The work will examine China''s attitude toward nuclear transparency; the possible influence of high-resolution satellite imagery on China''s position; what sorts of nuclear transparency China could accept under international arms control and nonproliferation treaties; and what kind of on-site inspections China could accept at its specific nuclear production facility and site under an FMCT.

teaser image

Book Chapter

Potential Application of Commercial Observation Satellite Imagery for the Verification of Declared and Undeclared Nuclear Production Facilities

| August 1999

Negotiations on a Fissile Material Cutoff Treaty (FMCT) will soon be underway at the Committee on Disarmament in Geneva, and will include detailed attention to how such a treaty could be verified. This paper explains how commercial observation satellites can be effective in verifying that reactors used to produce weapons plutonium in the past are kept in a shutdown status under a cutoff treaty or moratorium. The satellites considered are the new-generation satellites with fine spatial resolution images in the visible and near infrared band complemented by thermal infrared images with lower-spatial resolution but good temperature resolution. These satellites can also contribute to the detection of undeclared nuclear-reactor sites and suspicious construction activities.