No Nuclear EARTH 無核地球: Australia's nuclear dilemma

By Fissile Materials Working Group 

12 July 2012 

"What will make a focus on nuclear security a permanent feature of
 what we do?" asked Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard at the 2012 Nuclear Security Summit
 held in Seoul in late March.  Experts agree that the 2014 summit must 
go further in securing nuclear materials from disasters and, most 
important, terrorist threats -- but agreement on precisely how to do 
this is harder to come by. In this regard, Australia has much to offer.

Though much of the world may not realize it, Australia has a 
superlative record in nuclear security. A recent international report by
 the Nuclear Threat Initiative, the NTI Nuclear Materials Index, placed
 Australia first in nuclear security and control out of 32 states with 
weapons-usable nuclear materials. In addition, the country fulfilled key
 promises it made at the 2010 Nuclear Security Summit -- such as passing
 the Nuclear Terrorism Amendment Act of 2011, which allows Canberra to 
ratify the International Convention for the Suppression of Acts of 
Nuclear Terrorism.

 More important, as leaders around the globe prepare for the 2014 
nuclear security summit in the Netherlands, Australia has offered 
promising and forward-looking  ideas for invigorating the nuclear 
security agenda. At the 2012 summit, Prime Minister Gillard argued that 
nuclear security must occupy a permanent spot on state agendas, rather 
than only surfacing once every two years for a summit. To achieve this, 
the Australian leader proposed three specific and actionable ideas to 
create an enduring space for nuclear security in policy-maker 
portfolios.

The Australian plan. Experts around the world agree 
that when it comes to nuclear security, the International Atomic Energy 
Agency (IAEA) lacks much-needed authority and resources. The question 
is, how does it get there? Gillard called for innovative thinking to 
strengthen the IAEA. And her fellow Australian Trevor Findlay, senior 
fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation, published a
 comprehensive report PDF
 last month detailing recommendations on how to bolster the watchdog 
agency. If other states heed Canberra's call for innovation, the whole 
world can reap the results of greater transparency, accountability, and 
authority from the IAEA.



Next, Gillard recommended creating an accountability framework to build confidence in states' nuclear security. Gillard suggested
 that summit nations take on "regular peer  reviews of our domestic 
nuclear security arrangements that would ensure ongoing transparency and
 keep each of us, and all of us, on our toes, which is where we should 
be as we deal with this challenge." (Read more...) 

http://thebulletin.org/web-edition/columnists/fissile-materials-working-group/australias-nuclear-dilemma 