Engineering Nuclear Disarmament

Fifty years into the nuclear non-proliferation treaty (NPT) regime, the risks of nuclear war, terrorism, and the threat of further proliferation remain. A lack of significant progress towards disarmament will cast doubt upon the viability of the NPT. By recognizing that certain fissile materials are essential to every nuclear weapon and that controlling their usage provides the foundation for international efforts to limit their spread, this book presents a comprehensive framework for nuclear disarmament.

Based upon phased reductions, Shea provides a mechanism for the disposal of weapon-origin fissile material and controls on peaceful nuclear activities and non-explosive military uses. He explores the technological means for monitoring and verification, the legal arrangements required to provide an enduring foundation, and a financial structure which will enable progress.

This book will be invaluable to professional organizations, arms control NGOs, government officials, scientists, and politicians. It will also appeal to academics and postgraduate researchers working on security studies, disarmament diplomacy and the politics and science of verification.

Thomas Shea is an adjunct, non-resident senior fellow at the Federation of American Scientists, and is widely recognized as an expert in nuclear disarmament verification, non-proliferation, and international safeguards. He specializes in pragmatic yet innovative approaches to verification, and has been honored for his work on Iran, the Trilateral Initiative, on a future FMCT, and on IAEA inspections in complex civil plants processing weapon-usable plutonium and highly enriched uranium, and how those measures might be applied in the context of nuclear disarmament. Dr. Shea recently completed a FAS study supported by a MacArthur Foundation grant on the relevance of nuclear powered naval vessels to non-proliferation and nuclear disarmament, which may have relevance for Iran and for the 2020 NPT Review Conference.