The State Department’s Bureau of International Security and Nonproliferation Office of Cooperative Threat Reduction (ISN/CTR) administers the Partnership for Nuclear Threat Reduction Program (PNTR), which works to counter the damaging nonproliferation and nuclear security impacts of aggressive civil nuclear reactor exports by great power competitors, and to prevent states or terrorists from diverting or acquiring nuclear material, technology, or expertise that could be used to attack the United States.
Under a priority funding effort issued this week, PNTR is accepting partnership applications to enhance U.S. bilateral and multilateral cooperation, consistent with the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) nuclear energy infrastructure milestones approach, in nuclear energy infrastructure development, nuclear security, and capacity-building to support secure deployment of a Small Modular Reactor (SMR) or other advanced reactors to partner countries. Recognizing the many years it takes to put in place the necessary infrastructure to support a nuclear power program, PNTR provides essential capacity-building support and technical expertise to priority partner countries to advance the secure utilization of civilian nuclear reactors, especially SMRs and other advanced reactors.
Funded activities under this effort will emphasize:
- Activities to develop and implement trustworthiness programs and related regulatory and sub-regulatory guidance (i.e., human reliability programs, fitness-for-duty, etc.) at a facility, organizational, or national level and/or to mitigate the risk of an insider threat.
- Training, roundtables, and exercises that identify threats or mitigate risks from radicalized or coerced personnel to sabotage or divert nuclear material, technology, or expertise. Training aims may range from raising awareness of radicalization indicators and behavioral observation techniques that can mitigate these risks, to host institution adaptation and implementation of human reliability programs.
- Leveraging regional and multilateral training and events, both in person and online, to provide capacity-building support in partnership with internationally recognized nonproliferation, nuclear security, and nuclear educational organizations and institutions.
The estimated total program funding for this effort is $2,000,000 USD.
Additional details are available at Grants.gov (SFOP0007369). The closing date for applications is Jan 29, 2021.