On Tuesday 15 September 2009 Dr James Acton, Associate, Nonproliferation Program, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, will speak on “Nuclear Power, Disarmament and Technological Restraint” from 5:30-6:30pm.
Dr James Acton will lead a discussion meeting focused on the issues raised in his recent article in Survival, ‘Nuclear Power, Disarmament and Technological Restraint’. Dr Acton argues that if talk of abolishing nuclear weapons is to be anything more than mere rhetoric, policymakers, regulators and the nuclear industry will have to take non-proliferation much more seriously than they have done to date. Proliferation concerns have typically been ignored in decisions about nuclear energy. In future, they should be included on an equal footing to other consideration such as economics and waste. Doing so leads to the conclusion that if the world is really serious about eliminating nuclear weapons, it will likely be necessary to forsake the most sensitive nuclear technologies. The long-term goal should be a multilateral, non-discriminatory ban on such technologies. In the interim, states that forsake sensitive technologies unilaterally have policy tools at their disposal to make it less likely others will seek them. These tools include a willingness to trade in less sensitive technologies, taking back spent fuel, and the example of restraint.
James Acton is an associate in the Nonproliferation Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington DC. He co-authored the Adelphi Paper, Abolishing Nuclear Weapons, and co-edited the follow-up book, Abolishing Nuclear Weapons: A Debate (both with George Perkovich). Prior to joining the Carnegie Endowment in October 2008, Acton was a lecturer at the Centre for Science and Security Studies in the Department of War Studies at King’s College London and was the science and technology researcher at the Verification Research, Training and Information Centre (VERTIC), where he was a participant in the UK–Norway dialogue on verifying the dismantlement of warheads. He is also the joint UK member of the International Panel on Fissile Materials. He has published widely on topics related to nonproliferation and disarmament including in Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Nonproliferation Review, and Survival. He holds a PhD in theoretical physics from the University of Cambridge.
This meeting will be chaired by Mark Fitzpatrick, Senior Fellow for Non-proliferation and will take place on the Fourth Floor at Arundel House, 13–15 Arundel Street, Temple Place, London WC2R 3DX.
If you would like to attend please RSVP to Clara Lane-Spollen e-mail: lane-spollen@iiss.org or tel: 020 7395 9169.
