Norway’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs hosted a meeting of experts Nov. 16-18, 2015 in Oslo to launch the work of the International Partnership for Nuclear Disarmament Verification (IPNDV).
This second plenary meeting of the IPNDV drew together nuclear subject-matter-experts from 25 countries to discuss the latest research on monitoring and verification and the technical challenges associated with the verification of nuclear disarmament.
Several international treaty organization representatives as well as scientists from research organizations provided briefings on a variety of subjects related to disarmament verification.
Meeting attendees also visited Norway’s Institute for Energy Technology, where they saw firsthand the procedures and technologies developed for the UK-Norway Initiative on Nuclear Warhead Dismantlement Verification.
IPNDV finalized Terms of Reference for three working groups under the effort:
- Working Group 1 – Focused on dismantlement phase of the nuclear weapons lifecycle, including the types of information and criteria needed to determine whether those objectives are being met, and the specific areas of expertise and resources required to support future work.
- Working Group 2 – Focused on lessons from existing on-site inspection regimes and assess the applicability of fundamental on-site inspection principles to possible future nuclear arms control agreements.
- Working Group 3 – Focused on identification of practical solutions to technical challenges related to nuclear warhead verification, including methods for nuclear warhead authentication, establishing and maintaining chain of custody, and authenticating necessary data and equipment.
The three working groups will convene in February 2016 in Geneva. The Partners will receive an update from the Working Groups at the third IPNDV plenary which Japan has offered to host in Tokyo in 2016.
Source: U.S. Department of State, adapted.