Eight years on from the launch of the Global Partnership, the UK Global Threat Reduction Programme has a mature portfolio of programmes aimed at improving the security of fissile materials (i.e. plutonium and highly enriched uranium); reducing the number of sites containing nuclear and radiological material; reducing the risks of proliferation of biological expertise, weapons and materials; contributing to the destruction of chemical weapons stocks, and providing sustainable employment for former weapons scientists whose expertise could otherwise be misused.
A number of the nuclear programmes have been brought to successful completion. Through these the Global Threat Reduction Programme:
- Contributed to international support to close and decommission Soviet early-generation nuclear reactors as early as possible. Their closure was also a requirement prior to accession to the EU. Bulgaria’s four reactors at Kozloduy, and the Slovak Republic’s two reactors at Bohunice, were closed by the end of 2006. Lithuania’s two reactors at Ignalina were closed by the end of 2009 (UK programme closed 2007);
- Ran a successful programme of assistance to address the social and economic consequences of the closure of Soviet early-generation nuclear power plants. A recent independent impact evaluation found strong evidence of the lasting benefits of the programme (UK programme completed 2007);
- Successfully concluded the UK’s long-running Nuclear Safety Programme providing technical and financial assistance to promote adoption of internationally recognised nuclear safety and regulatory standards within the civil nuclear industry. Projects contributed substantial, and self-sustaining, improvements in nuclear safety and expertise (UK programme completed 2009);
- Completed the dismantling of 4 Soviet nuclear submarines in North West Russia (one in partnership with Norway) to time and to cost (UK programme completed 2009);
- Managed construction of a £24.4 million spent nuclear fuel storage facility and associated site physical protection upgrades at Atomflot, North West Russia, and provided 50 storage casks to enable transfer of spent fuel from unsafe and insecure storage on the ship ‘Lotta’. By the end of 2010, 26 casks had been filled; transfer is expected to be completed in 2012;
- Contributed to the US-led Elimination of Weapons Grade Plutonium Production Programme, which achieved shutdown of the third and final plutonium producing reactor at Zheleznogorsk in Russian Siberia in mid-2010. The UK contributed £11 million to the programme.
You can find more detail in the Global Threat Reduction Programme: annual progress reports in the Reports and Publications section.