SENSE OF CONGRESS CONCERNING ASSISTING OTHER COUNTRIES TO IMPROVE SECURITY OF FISSILE MATERIAL.

SEC. 1310. SENSE OF CONGRESS CONCERNING ASSISTING OTHER COUNTRIES TO IMPROVE SECURITY OF FISSILE MATERIAL. (a) Findings.— Congress finds the following: (1) With the end of the Cold War, the world is faced with the need to manage the dismantling of vast numbers of nuclear weapons and the disposition of the fissile materials that they contain. (2) If recently agreed reductions in nuclear weapons are fully implemented, tens of thousands of nuclear weapons, containing a hundred tons or more of plutonium and many hundreds of tons of highly enriched uranium, will no longer be needed for military purposes. 110 STAT. 2711 (3) Plutonium and highly enriched uranium are the essential ingredients of nuclear weapons. (4) Limits on access to plutonium and highly enriched uranium are the primary technical barrier to acquiring nuclear weapons capability in the world today. (5) Several kilograms of plutonium, or several times that amount of highly enriched uranium, are sufficient to make a nuclear weapon. (6) Plutonium and highly enriched uranium will continue to pose a potential threat for as long as they exist. (7) Action is required to secure and account for plutonium and highly enriched uranium. (8) It is in the national interest of the United States to— (A) minimize the risk that fissile materials could be obtained by unauthorized parties; (B) minimize the risk that fissile materials could be reintroduced into the arsenals from which they came, halting or reversing the arms reduction process; and (C) strengthen the national and international control mechanisms and incentives designed to ensure continued arms reductions and prevent the spread of nuclear weapons. (b) Sense of Congress.— In light of the findings contained in subsection (a), it is the sense of Congress that the United States has a national security interest in assisting other countries to improve the security of their stocks of fissile material.