Russia, NATO Could Cooperate on Securing Nuclear Sites, Russian Defense Minister Says

Russia and NATO could begin exchanging technologies to help improve security at nuclear facilities, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said yesterday (see GSN, Aug. 4).

“It is likely that we will reach a point when we start exchanging technologies for safe storage of nuclear weapons and dealing with the effects of accidents involving them,” he said, according to RIA Novosti.

Ivanov made his remarks following successful training exercises carried out by the Russian Defense Ministry on responding to transportation accidents involving nuclear weapons. Russia plans next year to observe similar exercises by a NATO country, he said (RIA Novosti/BBC Monitoring, Aug. 3).

Ivanov also denied yesterday that Russian nuclear weapons were at risk for possible theft by terrorists.

“Never, neither in the history of the Soviet Union or the Russian Federation [were] there are any real attempts to seize nuclear weapons,” Ivanov was quoted by Interfax as saying. “But unfortunately, myths are spreading in various regions of the world that Russia’s nuclear arsenal is of poor quality and unsafe,” he added (Agence France-Presse, Aug. 3).

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