Third Nuclear Security Summit 2014 held in The Hague

The Third Nuclear Security Summit was held in The Hague, Netherlands from 24 to 25 March 2014. The summit was attended by 58 World leaders. At the summit, the leaders reached an agreement to prevent terrorists getting their hands on nuclear material that could be used to make a nuclear weapon. This will further reduce the threat of a nuclear attack.

New agreements which have been reached at the NSS 2014

The new agreements are based on the earlier results of the earlier summits held in Washington (2010) and Seoul (2012).

• Reducing the amount of dangerous nuclear material (highly enriched uranium and plutonium) in the world that terrorists could use to make a nuclear weapon.
• Improving the security of radioactive material (including low-enriched uranium) that can be used to make a dirty bomb.
• Improving the international exchange of information and international cooperation.
• The NSS countries agreed to keep the quantities of nuclear material as low as possible and to reduce them where possible. Countries that use highly enriched uranium or plutonium as fuel for power generation will limit the quantity involved as much as they can.
• The agreement also covers other radioactive material, such as low-enriched uranium, cobalt-60, strontium-90 and caesium-137. These materials have useful applications in hospitals industry, research and can also be used with ordinary explosives to make a dirty bomb.

Besides above new agreements, an agreement on Strengthening Initiative was also made. The aim of the initiative is to enhance the global nuclear security structure.

Under the initiative 35 countries agreed to incorporate the guidelines of IAEA in their national legislation. These guidelines will be binding and also engage IAEA teams to assess the security of nuclear materials.

These countries have also pledged to allow teams of international experts to evaluate their security procedures for nuclear material. It guarantees that security will be assessed on the basis of international standards and ensures the effectiveness of the measures taken.

The 35 countries who have committed themselves to these far-reaching agreements are

Algeria, Armenia, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Chile, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Lithuania, Mexico, Morocco, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Philippines, Poland, the Republic of Korea, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, the United States of America and Vietnam.

About NSS summit
The genesis of the Nuclear Security Summit lies in the speech given by the US president Barrack Obama in Prague, Czech Republic in 2009. In this speech president Obama called for establishment of an nuclear security architecture so as to prevent the threat of nuclear terrorism.

The first NSS was held in Washington DC in 2010 in order to secure nuclear material and thus prevent nuclear terrorism. The summit was concerned with making political agreements.

The Second NSS was held in Seoul in 2010 and focused on the progress made on implementing the first summit agreements.  The United States will  host the next summit in 2016.