The smuggling of nuclear materials in the Central Asian region
Between the 11th and 13th of October 2022, in Samarkand, Republic of Uzbekistan, a Conference was held on combating the smuggling of nuclear materials in the Central Asian region, organized by the Customs Committee of the Republic of Uzbekistan jointly with the National Nuclear Security Administration of the US Department of Energy (DOE/NNSA).
Among the Conference participants were representatives of customs and border services, law enforcement and security agencies, as well as representatives of scientific organizations that promote forensic examinations from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan. From the National Nuclear Center, the conference was attended by: Andrey Syssaletin, Head of the Information Security Department, NNC RK and Vitaly Pospelov, Head of the Department of Nuclear Safety and Nuclear Energy Development, IAE Branch NNC RK.
During the Conference, the prospects for the growing risks and threats of nuclear smuggling in the Central Asian region were outlined, taking into account the urgent problem of the availability of hazardous materials, global smuggling schemes and the ever-increasing terrorist threat, and the countries participating in the Conference exchanged the best practices on countering nuclear smuggling.
