Netherlands to Help Russia With Fissile Material

Under an agreement signed March 14, the Dutch government will assist Russia with safely transporting and storing fissile material from its dismantled nuclear weapons and submarines. The agreement, negotiated during the past year and signed in Moscow by Russian Minister of Atomic Energy Yevgeny Adamov and Dutch Foreign Affairs Minister Jozias van Aartsen, commits the Netherlands to providing initial funding of almost $3 million for the initiative. According to Annemieke Ruigrok, first secretary in the Political Section of the Dutch Embassy in Washington, "This is a framework agreement…. We still have to discuss with the Russians the concrete projects this money will go to."

The agreement, which represents the first joint Dutch-Russian effort to address the proliferation threat posed by the Russian nuclear arsenal and fleet, outlines two specific projects that could be pursued. One involves building inserts for containers used to store fissile material from dismantled nuclear weapons and would likely be implemented in conjunction with ongoing U.S. fissile material storage efforts at Mayak. The second option is to manufacture metal-concrete containers for the transportation and storage of spent nuclear fuel from decommissioned nuclear submarines and would probably be pursued alongside cooperation that exists between Russia and Norway in this area.

According to a Russian Atomic Energy Ministry spokesperson, long-term cooperation with the Netherlands on nuclear disarmament will extend beyond the two projects now being considered. If the currently planned cooperation is successful, additional funds would likely be available for further joint projects, Ruigrok indicated.