Toward Irreversibility in Nuclear Disarmament: The Role of Transparency Measures

Abstract

Transparency can increase confidence in irreversibility in nuclear disarmament by enhancing verification and increasing the openness of fuel cycle choices and operations. This paper raises key verification challenges and describes how they can be addressed. Also, transparency measures could be utilized to ensure that current and future nuclear fuel cycle capabilities are used as intended and not as a means to breach irreversibility. Nuclear latency poses serious technical problems for irreversibility that may not be resolvable on a technical level. Political–legal approaches could be the best path forward in the future.

Keywords

• Nuclear weapon
• irreversibility
• transparency
• nuclear fuel cycle