U.S. underestimated scale of Russian diversion of nuclear materials

WASHINGTON -- The Clinton administration is reviewing its strategy to stop Russia's diversion of nuclear materials in the wake of that country's economic collapse last summer.

A U.S. official said Washington underestimated the difficulties in ensuring that Russian nuclear material is not smuggled out of Russia to such states as Iran or Iraq or that Russian nuclear scientists are not recruited by those countries.

"Russia's economic collapse in August has forced us to reevaluate our methods and priorities and brought, from the Russians themselves, a renewed sense of urgency to our cooperation," said Rose Gottemoeller, assistant energy secretary for nonproliferation and national security. "This now includes an increased awareness of the insider threat of nuclear materials diversion and an understanding that the size, and geographic scope of the nuclear enterprise is larger than had been appreciated in 1994."

Unofficial nuclear proliferation by Russia in the 1990s is nothing new. It has been an ongoing crisis since the collapse of the Soviet Union. The sharp reduction in budgets for research and development of strategic weapons forced some in the elite communities of military and technology specialists to sell materials and expertise in order to support their livelihoods.

Ms. Gottemoeller, testifying to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday, said the United States considers as its greatest threat the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction to what she termed rogue states or to terrorist organizations. The rogue states include Iran, Iraq, North Korea, Syria and Cuba. She said the Energy Department inspectors are deployed in Russian nuclear centers as well as on Russian borders to stop theft and smuggling of nuclear weapons and material.

The official said the Clinton administration has worked with more than 170 institutes and 6,100 nonconventional weapons experts in Russia and other republics of the former Soviet Union. "This work has helped keep these experts in Russia and the newly independent states, as opposed to selling their know how to rogue regimes, criminal groups or terrorist organizations," she said.

Ms. Gottemoeller said Russian is "finally taking steps to reassess and restructure their nuclear complex and has approached us about helping to develop new jobs for weapons scientists who will lose their defense work as weapons facilities close."