Serious matter: Vice President Boediono (center) sits between British Prime Minister David Cameron (left) and European Council President Herman Van Rompuy at an informal plenary session on the last day of the Nuclear Security Summit (NSS) in The Hague on Tuesday
span class="caption" style="width: 497px;">Serious matter: Vice President Boediono (center) sits between British Prime Minister David Cameron (left) and European Council President Herman Van Rompuy at an informal plenary session on the last day of the Nuclear Security Summit (NSS) in The Hague on Tuesday. (AP/Bart Maat)
Indonesia has contributed to making the world safer from the threat of nuclear terrorism by taking five measures to reduce the risk of misusing nuclear material by terrorist groups, Vice President Boediono said on the second day of the Nuclear Security Summit (NSS) in The Hague on Tuesday.
'We have agreed to reaffirm our commitment to strengthen regional and multilateral cooperation as well as national efforts to ensure a higher standard of nuclear security. Indonesia stands ready to work closely with all parties to that end,' he said.
The five measures are installing radiation portal monitors (RPM) at important seaports; using low-enriched uranium in producing radio-isotopes and in the operation of nuclear research reactors; acceding to the International Convention for the Suppression of Acts of Nuclear Terrorism (ICSANT) in March 2014; drafting a bill on nuclear security that will be submitted to the legislature by 2015; and developing a National Legislation Implementation Kit on Nuclear Security (NLIK) as an Indonesian 'house gift' to the NSS.
The kit will contribute to strengthening international cooperation on nuclear security. Other countries have also delivered their initiatives, termed 'gift baskets'. Indonesia's initiative was supported by 29 countries.
The Foreign Ministry's director general for multilateral affairs, Hasan Kleib, said the NLIK could act as a model for any country preparing national legislation on nuclear security.
'Those who want to prepare national legislation on nuclear security could choose elements in the model that are suitable for them,' he said.
The Indonesian government required two years to finalize the NLIK draft and submitted it to the Netherlands as the NSS host.
At his opening speech on Monday, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte acknowledged that working to build a safe and stable world was never easy. Citing former UN secretary-general Dag Hammarskjöld, he said the pursuit of peace and progress could never be relaxed and never abandoned.
'There is no magic formula we can use to free the world once and for all from the menace of nuclear terrorism. But sitting back and doing nothing is not an option. We are making progress, step by step,' he said.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon warned the Ukraine crisis could have profound implications for the integrity of a global treaty designed to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons.
His comments suggested concern that events in Ukraine could make some countries more reluctant to give up nuclear weapon capabilities, or even tempt others to pursue them.
With more than 2,000 metric tons of dangerous material scattered across hundreds of sites, the risk that terrorists could get their hands on enough highly enriched uranium or plutonium to make a crude nuclear device is one of the greatest threats facing the world.
'Nuclear terrorism is about intent, capability and opportunity. It doesn't take a Manhattan project to make a crude nuclear bomb, if you have the material,' Matthew Bunn, a professor at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government, said during the Nuclear Knowledge Summit, held on the sidelines of the NSS.
The global stockpile of nuclear material is large enough to build more than 20,000 new weapons like the one that leveled the city of Hiroshima and almost 80,000 more like the bomb that destroyed the city of Nagasaki, both in Japan in 1945, during World War II.
During the NSS plenary session, 53 participating countries presented their national statements.
Rutte said countries' statements demonstrated a broad determination to ensure the NSS process was successful, as all had the same goal of preventing nuclear terrorism.
The NSS was slated to conclude later Tuesday with a joint press conference by Rutte and US President Barack Obama, as chairman of the next NSS in Washington in 2016.
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