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Monday, March 19, 2012

The Seoul Communiqué to Discard Nuclear Substance

The main goal of the Nuclear Security Summit is to prevent nuclear terrorism by safely managing and removing nuclear substances such as highly enriched uranium(HEU) and plutonium. Today, enough HEU and plutonium to create 126,500 nuclear weapons exist in this world. According to IAEA, 1800~2000 reports of stolenㆍmissingㆍaccroachingㆍtrafficing of nuclear substances have been made since 1993. Bargaining agents of the summit agreed on minimizing weapon-grade nuclear substances and strenghthening physical protection of nuclear facilities as well as blocking illegal business of nuclear substances. This will be accepted as a Seoul Communiqué on 27th. The most important part is minimizing HEU in the private sector. According to Nuclear Security Summit Planning Team, Kazakhstan has 10t, Canada 1500kg, Japan 1200~1400kg, Germany 950kg, and other non-nuclear nations 16~17t of HEU in the private sector. It takes 25kg of HEU to create 1 nuclear weapon, so if all HEU in private sector is removed, 640~680 potential nuclear weapon is being destroyed. Argentina, Australia, Czech, and 7 other nations who promissed to discard all HEU in the 2010 Nuclear Security Summit Washington have kept their promises. US and Russia each reduced 7t and 48t of HEU. Korea is expecting that more nuclear substance will be removed from this summit.

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