Nuclear Security for a Sustainable Future

In May 2024, policymakers and experts from across the world will gather at the International Conference on Nuclear Security: Shaping the Future (ICONS 2024), hosted by the IAEA in Vienna, to discuss how the global community can collectively sustain and strengthen the progress made in nuclear security.

Events such as the 2023 Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP28) and the first Nuclear Energy Summit, held in March 2024, signal that the nuclear security community must focus its attention on what lies ahead. Nuclear is becoming an indispensable part of the global strategy to meet energy and climate goals, bringing with it the challenge of enabling access to the relevant technologies in a secure manner.

While this has always been the mission of nuclear security practitioners, their task is more important now than ever before. As the peaceful uses and applications of nuclear technology become more widespread in pursuit of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), we must increase our emphasis on making these technologies secure and on mitigating existing or emerging threats.

Enabling the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals

The intersection of nuclear security with SDG 7 (Affordable and Clean Energy) and SDG 9 (Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure) is clear: national nuclear security threat assessments and a ‘security by design’ approach are essential both for existing nuclear power programmes and new ones planned in pursuit of the SDGs.

At the same time, nuclear security plays a fundamental role in other important domains where the connection with nuclear security is less obvious. Agriculture and health, for example, require the implementation of effective nuclear security measures in order to prevent malicious acts involving radioactive material or associated facilities. As part of its Rays of Hope flagship initiative, the IAEA has been providing assistance to low and middle income countries to develop radiation medicine capabilities for life-saving cancer treatments for the advancement of SDG 3 (Good Health and Well-Being). As part of its Atoms4Food joint initiative with the Food and Agriculture Organization, the IAEA is contributing to the attainment of SDG 2 (Zero Hunger), SDG 6 (Clean Water and Sanitation), SDG 14 (Life Below Water) and SDG 15 (Life on Land) by enabling countries’ use of isotope and nuclear techniques for sustainable and climate-smart agriculture, food safety and nutrition.

These initiatives, and others such as NUTEC Plastics and ZODIAC, require that countries develop, maintain and sustain comprehensive nuclear security regimes. The dedicated work of nuclear security professionals from all corners of the globe is contributing to the international community’s efforts to collectively pursue the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

What is sustainable nuclear security?

At its core, nuclear security seeks to prevent and detect criminal or unauthorized acts involving nuclear and other radioactive material, and associated facilities and activities. National nuclear security regimes also seek to develop response capabilities that can be effectively deployed if such acts occur.

While physical protection — guns, gates and guards — is certainly an integral component of nuclear security, it represents only a fraction of the work being done to protect the global community from the unthinkable impact of a malicious act involving nuclear or other radioactive material.

Nuclear security extends far beyond the perimeter fences of facilities handling nuclear or other radioactive material. It involves the establishment of effective regulatory oversight to ensure that these materials are used, stored and transported in a secure manner. Moreover, it involves the development of a robust detection architecture and plans and procedures for responding to cases involving material that may be outside of regulatory control.

In our increasingly interconnected digital world, the nuclear security field has had to adapt and implement strong information and computer security measures to prevent cyber-attacks against critical infrastructure. Moreover, in the spirit of the SDGs — in particular SDG 17 (Partnerships for the Goals) — extensive international cooperation is required in order to ensure that all countries can build the capacities needed to establish and maintain robust yet sustainable national nuclear security regimes.

As the world’s central intergovernmental forum for scientific and technical cooperation in the nuclear field, the IAEA assists countries to fulfil their national responsibilities in nuclear security. The IAEA’s nuclear security programme is driven largely by a needs assessment approach implemented in cooperation with countries on the basis of their self-assessments. The most recent example of this approach is the opening of the IAEA’s Nuclear Security Training and Demonstration Centre (NSTDC) at the Seibersdorf laboratories in Austria in October 2023. The NSTDC provides a centralized state-of-the-art facility to further enhance capacity building in nuclear security by providing hands-on training and by using advanced technology and expertise to cover areas not previously addressed by international training efforts. In addition, the IAEA continues to keep abreast of scientific, technological and engineering innovations by further advancing the tools available to countries through science and research.

None of the services aimed at establishing sustainable national nuclear security regimes would be possible without the voluntary contributions of donors to the Nuclear Security Fund (NSF), established in 2002. Donations to the NSF ensure that these critical efforts are financially supported and can assist countries to prepare consistently for the nuclear security challenges of the future.

Through collective international actions fostered by the IAEA’s work to fulfil its central coordinating role in nuclear security, we can shape a sustainable future in which the benefits of nuclear technology are harnessed for the greater good, and in which the risks are effectively managed. As the global community works to further expand access to, and maintain public confidence in, the peaceful uses of nuclear technology in pursuit of the SDGs, nuclear security must continue to underpin and bolster those efforts.

Deliberations at ICONS 2024 will focus on shaping the future of nuclear security to ensure that nuclear security activities remain sustainable in an ever-changing world, and to prepare practitioners to anticipate and defend against potential threats.