Significance of Russian Federation Legislation on Closed Cities, Nuclear Weapons and Control of Dual-Use Technology Export for Nonproliferation

    The project is focused on a comprehensive analysis of the role and significance of the Russian Federation legislation on closed cities, nuclear weapons and control of dual-use technology export for nonproliferation.

The analysis of provisions of the RF laws allowed us to substantiate the practical value of the laws and other normative acts in providing a special regime of secure operation of nuclear weapons complex facilities, in fighting crime and terrorism in the special conditions of the closed cities, and in strengthening nonproliferation.

The objective of the project is to analyze the following aspects:

• Role of the legislation on closed cities and nuclear weapons in providing a special regime of secure operation of nuclear weapons complex facilities and in preventing crime and terrorism in the special conditions of the closed cities.
  
  
• Significance of the legislation for preventing emergencies, and accidents as well as mechanisms for elimination of their consequences at nuclear weapons facilities;
  
  
• Social conditions of weapons specialists, and problems of stability of social environment in the closed cities;
  
  
• Role of the legislation and international cooperation in conversion of nuclear weapons complex facilities;
  
  
• Legal basis for the investment zone and entrepreneurship in a closed city (e.g. in Sarov)
  
  
• Implications of the opening of the closed cities for nonproliferation;
  
  
• Significance of the RF legislation on control of dual-use technology export for nonproliferation.
  
  
• Legal basis for the borderline control to maintain the nonproliferation regime
  
  

This project was supported financially by the US Department of Energy within the framework of the Nuclear Cities Initiative (NCI) under the Russian-US intergovernmental agreement signed on September 22, 1998, as well as by W. Alton Jones Foundation, The John Merck Fund, Ploughshares Fund and RANSAC within the framework of an ISTC partner project.