NATO-RUSSIA COUNCIL SEMINAR ON LESSONS LEARNED FROM NUCLEAR WEAPONS INCIDENTS AND ACCIDENTS

On 11-12 December 2007 a Seminar of nuclear experts was convened under the auspices of the NATO-Russia Council. It was held at the NATO Headquarters in Brussels, Belgium.

The event was attended by over 50 senior officials and experts dealing with nuclear weapons safety and security issues from NRC nations' Ministries of Defense and Foreign Affairs, national Delegations at NATO HQ, NATO Military Authorities and NATO International Staff.

The Seminar formed part of the continuing NATO-Russian dialogue on nuclear weapons issues, as laid out in the 1997 NATO-Russia Founding Act and the 2002 Rome Declaration on mutual cooperation between NATO and the Russian Federation. A similar NATO-Russia Seminar on nuclear weapon safety and security had been held in The Hague, The Netherlands, in April 2002. This recent Brussels Seminar was a follow-on event to a series of field demonstrations by NRC nuclear weapon states on nuclear weapons accident response capabilities, that had been held between 2004 and 2007.

The primary purpose of the Seminar was to provide a forum for participants from NRC member nations to exchange views on the prevention of nuclear weapons incidents and accidents, as well as on lessons learned from past occurrences and from the NRC field exercises. The event promoted greater openness and transparency, and provided further insight and understanding of safety and security provisions and nuclear accident consequence management issues, on a reciprocal basis. The Seminar also provided a good opportunity for NRC nuclear experts to identify potential topics to be considered for NATO-Russia consultations and cooperation for the coming years.