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IAEA Sees Nuclear Security Improvements
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NTI - Global Security Newswire, 14 Feb 2010.

Potential nuclear-weapon ingredients around the world have become better protected against extremists following a commitment by scores of countries 10 months ago to safeguard all vulnerable atomic materials by 2014, the International Atomic Energy Agency indicated this weekend.

The United States and 46 other nations signed onto the nonbinding blueprint last April, when leaders and top delegates for the governments convened in Washington for the Obama administration's Global Nuclear Security Summit.Conventional Arms"The amount of material which is better controlled is larger," IAEA Nuclear Safety and Security Director Anita Nilsson told Reuters.

Addressing whether nuclear security has improved overall, Nilsson said: "I think that there is progress ... the fact that it's a positive development I think we have to recognize."

Still, "one cannot be complacent on the threat situation, that is very clear ... the effort is to tighten the system so that it is more difficult" for would-be nuclear terrorists to acquire weapon parts, the official said.

Extremist organizations are considered capable of assembling a simple but devastating nuclear weapon if they obtained the requisite materials, expertise and financing, Reuters quoted experts as saying. Al-Qaeda and similar groups have sought out such technology, the specialists said.

The top hurdle would be to acquire weapon-usable nuclear material, making its security essential.

The U.N. nuclear watchdog receives roughly $27 million each year to assist nations in securing their borders, obtaining equipment and other work to deter the trafficking of uranium, plutonium and other substances that could fuel a nuclear or radiological weapon, Reuters reported.

While progress has been made in recent months -- including repatriation of 5,500 pounds of spent fuel from Serbia to Russia -- the security work continues, according to Nilsson and IAEA chief Yukiya Amano.

Terrorist groups have financial resources, technology, they have Internet access, they have educated people ... it is not impossible to develop nuclear weapons or nuclear explosive devices," Amano said in a February interview with Reuters. "We should do more and we can do more."

Nuclear smuggling cases seen in nations such as Georgia show the security threat remains, though the numbers are down since the end of the 1990s, Nilsson said.

"Throughout the years there have been a number of (trafficking) cases with nuclear material," she said. "There is material moving which is not supposed to move around".

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