U.S. Japan to Launch Talks on Cooperation in Nuke Forensics

The Seoul Times ^ | 02/05/2010 | The Seoul Times

[ErnstStavroBlofeld]

Japan and the United States will launch working-level talks in February aimed at promoting cooperation in the field of nuclear forensics, a sophisticated process to analyze the composition of nuclear materials, Kyodo News reported on Nan. 30 quoting sources of both governments as having said .

Representatives of Japan's Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, and the U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration, an organization under the Department of Energy, will attend the talks.

It would be the first intergovernmental consultation on nuclear forensics between Japan and the United States.

Nuclear forensics focuses on analyzing the nature, use and origin of nuclear materials, such as highly enriched uranium and plutonium that can be used to produce nuclear arms, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Analysis of radioisotopes, isotopic and mass ratios, material age, impurity content, chemical form and physical parameters can reveal a ''nuclear fingerprint,'' the IAEA says.

The possible revelation of such nuclear fingerprints is expected to help deter nuclear powers from providing nuclear materials to third parties and prevent nuclear terrorism.

U.S. President Barack Obama reached an agreement with Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama in Tokyo in November to promote bilateral cooperation on nuclear nonproliferation, including the field of nuclear forensics.