US Statement to the CD

Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT)

Conference on Disarmament

General Assembly First Committee

UN Disarmament Commission

Special Session on Disarmament

Statement to the CD

United States of America

Statement by Jackie W. Sanders
Permanent Representative of the US Delegation to the Conference on Disarmament
and Special Representative of the President for the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons

June 3, 2004

Mr. President,

Since this is the first time I have addressed the plenary under your Presidency, I wish to offer you the full support of my delegation. We look forward to working together over the coming weeks.

Today I wish to report on the "Global Threat Reduction Initiative" announced last week in Vienna by Secretary of Energy Abraham. The United States will devote $450 million to this initiative, designed to prevent terrorists from acquiriring nuclear and radiological material that could be used to build a nuclear or radiological weapon. In response to an evolving proliferation threat, the Global Threat Reduction Initiative will focus exclusively on efforts to secure and dispose of a broad range of nuclear and radiological materials around the world that are vulnerable to theft.

Specifically, the initiative calls for:

- partnerning with the Russian Federation to repatriat all Russian-origin fresh highly enriched nuclear fuel by the end of 2005 and accelerate and complete the return of all Russian spent fuel by 2010. Such projects will be undertaken on a priority basis to the degree of security threat posed in each case.

- accelerating and completing the repatriation of all US-origin research reactor fuel under an existing US program from locations around the world.

- working to convert the cores of civilian research reactors that use highly enriched uranium to instead use low-enriched uranium fuel, both in the United States and worldwide.

- identifying other nuclear and radiological materials and related equipment covered by existing threat reduction efforts and addressing the most vulnerable facilities first, filling any gaps that would allow a terrorist to acquire such material and equipment.

While the current focus is on bilateral cooperation between the Russian Federation and the United States, it is clear that a true non-proliferation regime depends on the cooperation and collaboration of efforts by all members of the international community.

Mr. President,

Reducing the threat posed by weapons of mass destruction remains the highest priority for my government. My delegation plans to address this topic in more detail next week in our informal plenary discussion of "new types of weapons of mass destruction and new systems of such weapons."

Thank you, Mr. President.