IPFM International Panel on Fissile Materials - Members

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LATEST NEWS

Wed - Feb 17th, 2010
NEW IPFM RESEARCH REPORT: Unsuccessful "Fast Breeder" is no solution for long-term reactor waste disposal issues.
See press release (PDF, 131 KB)

Thu - Oct 29th, 2009
JUST RELEASED: Global Fissile Material Report 2009: A Path to Nuclear Disarmament
download (PDF, 9,2 MB)

Wed - Sep 9th, 2009
September 2009 draft of the IPFM Fissile Material (Cutoff) Treaty (including an article-by-article discussion)
download full text (PDF, 182 KB)

Thu - May 28th, 2009
IPFM Research Report #7: Consolidating Fissile Materials in Russia's Nuclear Complex, by Pavel Podvig
download (PDF, 709 KB)

Thu - Feb 19th, 2009
IPFM Research Report #6: The Safeguards at Reprocessing Plants under a Fissile Material (Cutoff) Treaty, by Shirley Johnson
download (PDF, 542 KB)

Fri - Feb 13th, 2009
IPFM Fissile Material (Cutoff) Treaty
download full text (PDF, 256 KB)

Fri - Feb 13th, 2009
IPFM Releases Draft International Treaty to Ban Production of Fissile Materials For Use in Nuclear Weapons: Fissile Material (Cutoff) Treaty
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Sat - Oct 11th, 2008
Global Fissile Material Report 2008, Scope and Verification of a Fissile Material (Cutoff) Treaty
download (PDF, 7,6 MB)

Wed - Oct 1st, 2008
Available for download: the IPFM briefing on Global Fissile Material Report 2008:
Scope and Verification of a Fissile Material (Cutoff) Treaty, 52nd IAEA General Conference, Vienna, Austria
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Tue - Jul 8th, 2008
IPFM Research Report #5: The Legacy of Reprocessing in the United Kingdom, by Martin Forwood
download (PDF, 940 KB)

Thu - May 8th, 2008
IPFM Research Report #4: Spent Nuclear Fuel Reprocessing in France, by Mycle Schneider and Yves Marignac
download (PDF, 2,7 MB)

Mon - May 5th, 2008
Available for download: the IPFM briefing on A Fissile Material (Cutoff) Treaty and Its Verification, United Nations Office at Geneva, Palais des Nations, 2008 NPT Preparatory Committee Meeting
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ABOUT IPFM

ABOUT IPFM MEMBERS STAFF NEWS CONTACT

James Acton		James ACTON (UK) is an associate in the Nonproliferation Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He co-authored the Adelphi Paper, Abolishing Nuclear Weapons, and co-edited the follow-up book, Abolishing Nuclear Weapons: A Debate (both with George Perkovich). Prior to joining the Carnegie Endowment in October 2008, Acton was a lecturer at the Centre for Science and Security Studies in the Department of War Studies at King's College London and was the science and technology researcher at the Verification Research, Training and Information Centre (VERTIC), where he was a participant in the UK-Norway dialogue on verifying the dismantlement of warheads. He has published widely on topics related to nonproliferation and disarmament including in Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Nonproliferation Review, and Survival. He holds a PhD in theoretical physics from the University of Cambridge.

Anatoli Diakov		Anatoli DIAKOV (Moscow, Russia) is a Professor of Physics (PhD in 1975) and, since 1991, Director of the Center for Arms Control, Energy and Environmental Studies of the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (Russia’s MIT). Diakov has written papers on nuclear arms reductions, the history of Russia’s plutonium production, disposition options for excess plutonium, and the feasibility of converting Russia’s icebreaker reactors from highly enriched to low-enriched uranium as well as on many other topics relating to nuclear arms control and disarmament.

José Goldemberg		José GOLDEMBERG (São Paolo, Brazil) has a PhD in nuclear physics (1954). He was Rector of the University of São Paolo (1986-90), Federal Minister of Science and Technology (1990-91), and Federal Minister of Education (1991-92) and has been the Minister of Environment of São Paolo since 2002. While Brazil's Minister of Science and Technology, Goldemberg persuaded President Collor de Mello to end Brazil's nuclear-weapons program, which led Argentina to shut its program down as well under monitoring by a joint Argentine-Brazil inspectorate. Goldemberg is best known for his work on global energy (including the future of nuclear energy and its consequences) and environment issues, which resulted in him being a co-recipient of Sweden's Volvo Environmental Prize in 2000.

Pervez Hoodbhoy		Pervez HOODBHOY (Islamabad, Pakistan) is professor of physics at Quaid-e-Azam University, Islamabad. He holds a Ph.D in nuclear physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and is the recipient of the Abdus Salam Prize for Mathematics, the Baker Award for Electronics, Faiz Ahmad Faiz Prize for contributions to education in Pakistan, and the UNESCO Kalinga Prize for the popularization of science. He has been a visiting professor at MIT, Carnegie Mellon University, the University of Maryland, and the Stanford Linear Accelerator. Dr. Hoodbhoy is a member of the Pugwash Council, and a sponsor of The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. He is frequently invited to comment on nuclear and political matters in Pakistani and international media.

M. B. Kalinowski		Martin B. KALINOWSKI (Hamburg, Germany, shared membership with Schaper) holds a PhD in nuclear physics (1997) dealing with international tritium control. For a decade he has been scientific assistant in the Interdisciplinary Research Group on Science, Technology, and Security (IANUS) at Darmstadt University of Technology, Darmstadt, Germany. In October 1998, Martin Kalinowski joined the International Data Center of the Provisional Technical Secretariat of the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO), Vienna, Austria. His research focused on the development of analysis methods for atmospheric xenon gas samples. During the spring term 2005, he served as Assistant Professor in the Department for Nuclear, Plasma and Radiological Engineering (NPRE) and was faculty member of the Program in Arms Control, Disarmament and International Security (ACDIS) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. From March 2006, he is full professor for Science and Peace Research and director of the newly established Carl-Friedrich von Weizsäcker Center for Science and Peace Research at the University of Hamburg, Germany. His research agenda deals with novel measurement technologies as well as nuclear and meteorological modeling of atmospheric radioactivity monitoring as a means to detect clandestine nuclear activities like plutonium separation and nuclear testing.

Jungmin Kang		Jungmin KANG (Seoul, South Korea) has a PhD in Nuclear Engineering from Tokyo University (1999) and spent two years with Princeton’s Program on Science and Global Security (1998-2000). He is currently the lead South Korean analyst in the MacArthur-Foundation-funded East-Asia Science-and-Security Initiative. Kang has co-authored articles on radioactive-waste management, spent-fuel storage, the proliferation-resistance of closed fuel cycles, plutonium disposition and the history of South Korea’s explorations of a nuclear-weapon option. He has contributed many popular articles to South Korea’s newspapers and magazines and is frequently interviewed about spent- fuel issues and the negotiations over North Korea’s nuclear-weapon program. He served as an advisor to South Korea’s National Security Council on North Korean nuclear issues during 2003 and currently serves on South Korea’s Presidential Commission on Sustainable Development where he advises on nuclear energy policy.

Patricia Lewis		Patricia LEWIS (Ireland and United Kingdom) has a PhD in nuclear physics (1981) and is the Deputy Director and Scientist-in-Residence of the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Monterey Institute of International Studies. Previously, she served as Director of the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR) and as Director of the Verification Technology and Information Centre (VERTIC) in London. Dr. Lewis is an Advisor to the International Commission on Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament (ICNND) established by the governments of Australia and Japan. She was a Commissioner on the 2004-2006 Weapons of Mass Destruction Commission, chaired by Dr. Hans Blix, and in 1998-99, she served as a Member of the Tokyo Forum for Nuclear Nonproliferation and Nuclear Disarmament. She previously served as an external reviewer for the Canberra Commission on the Elimination of Nuclear Weapons.

Li Bin		LI Bin (China, shared membership with SHEN) received his Bachelor and Master Degrees in Physics from Peking University and his Ph. D. from China Academy of Engineering Physics. In 1993, he joined the Institute of Applied Physics and Computational Mathematics (IAPCM) as a research fellow working on Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty supporting Chinese negotiation team. In 1994, Dr. Li received a post-doctoral fellowship on peace and security. He then spent his first fellowship year at the Defense and Arms Control Studies Program at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the second year at the Center for Energy and Environmental Studies at Princeton University. In the summer of 1996, Dr. Li went back to IAPCM in Beijing, where he was appointed as the director of Arms Control Division and the executive deputy director of the Program for Science and National Security Studies. Dr. Li attended the last round of CTBT negotiations as a technical advisor to the Chinese negotiation team. In 1999, Dr. Li left IAPCM to establish a research center, Institute of Science and Public Affairs based at China Youth College for Political Science. At the end of 2000, Dr. Li joined the faculty of Tsinghua University. Now he is professor on international studies and the director of Arms Control Program at the Institute of International Studies, Tsinghua University.

Yves Marignac		Yves MARIGNAC (Paris, France, shared with Mycle Schneider) is Executive Director of the energy-information agency WISE-Paris, which he joined in 1997 after four years shared between academic research in Paris-XI University, applied studies in the French nuclear institute CEA and a position at the nuclear company STMI. He has authored or contributed to many publications and studies on energy, nuclear and global environmental issues. In 1999-2000, he participated in the economic evaluation of the nuclear option commissioned by France’s Prime Minister, which resulted in what became known as the Charpin-Dessus-Pellat report. He also contributed to the 2001 report to the European Parliament's Scientific and Technological Option Assessment Panel on reprocessing plant discharges. In 2005-6, he was scientific and technical advisor to the commission preparing France’s public debate on the new European Power Reactor.

M. Marín Bosch		Miguel MARÍN BOSCH (Mexico City, Mexico) currently a Professor considering offers from both Mexico’s National University and its Foreign Service Diplomatic Academy, had a long career in Mexico’s foreign service, ending up as Deputy Minister for Asia, Africa, Europe and Multilateral Affairs. During the early 1990s, he was Mexico’s Ambassador to the Conference on Disarmament and chair of the Comprehensive Test Ban Negotiations during the first year of formal negotiations (1994).

A. J. Meerburg		Arend J. MEERBURG (Den Haag, The Netherlands) has an MSc in nuclear reactor physics (1964). He worked some years in oceanography and meteorology (including in the Antarctic). He joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1970 and worked there until retirement in 2004. Most of that period he was involved in multilateral arms control matters, including the final negotiations in Geneva of the Chemical Weapons Convention and the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban treaty. He was involved in many NPT-matters, the International Nuclear Fuel Cycle Evaluation (INFCE), discussions on an International Plutonium Storage regime (IPS), the Nuclear Suppliers Group etc. Recently he was member of the IAEA expert-group on Multilateral Nuclear Approaches to sensitive parts of the fuel cycle. He also served as ambassador to Yemen (1996-2000).

A. H. Nayyar		Abdul H. NAYYAR (Islamabad, Pakistan) has a PhD in physics (1973) from Imperial College, London. Nayyar retired from the faculty of Quaid-i-Azam University (Pakistan’s leading university) in 2005. He has been active in Pakistan’s nuclear-weapon policy debate since 1997 and a regular summer visitor with Princeton’s Program on Science and Global Security since 1998. Nayyar has co-authored articles on nuclear-reactor safety, fissile-material production in South Asia, the consequences of nuclear war in South Asia, and the feasibility of remote monitoring of a moratorium on plutonium separation in South Asia. He served as President of the Federation of Pakistani University Academic Staff Associations in 1989-90 and currently is President of Pakistan’s Peace Coalition and the Co-convener of Pugwash Pakistan. Nayyar writes regularly on nuclear-policy issues in the South Asian press.

Pavel Podvig		Pavel PODVIG (Russia) is a researcher at the Center for International Security and Cooperation at Stanford University. In 2008-09, Podvig is CISAC's acting associate director for research. Before coming to Stanford in 2004, he worked at the Center for Arms Control Studies at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT), which was the first independent research organization in Russia dedicated to analysis of technical issues related to arms control and disarmament. In Moscow, Podvig was the leader of a major research project and the editor of the book Russian Strategic Nuclear Forces (MIT Press, 2001).

Jean du Preez		Jean du PREEZ (citizen of South Africa) is currently Director of the International Organizations and Non-proliferation Program of Monterey Institute for International Studies’ Center for Non-proliferation Studies. Prior to Monterey, he served in the South African Ministry of Foreign Affairs for 17 years, including as Deputy-Director for non-proliferation and disarmament and as senior political counselor for disarmament affairs at South Africa’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations. During this time, he represented his country at several international negotiating meetings, including the 1995 and 2000 NPT Review Conferences. Du Preez has written extensively about the possible paths forward on the nuclear disarmament and nonproliferation agenda, including the Fissile Material Cutoff Treaty.

R. Rajaraman		R. RAJARAMAN (Co-chair, New Delhi, India) has a PhD in theoretical physics from Cornell University (with Hans Bethe, 1963). Rajaraman is one of India’s leading theoretical physicists (Fellow of both the Indian Academy of Science and the Indian National Science Academy). He has been contributing articles to India’s nuclear-weapons debate since 1970 and has been a regular summer visitor with Princeton’s Program on Science and Global Security since 2000. Since he retired from the faculty of the Jawaharlal Nehru University in 2004, he has been devoting nearly full time to nuclear policy analysis and public education. He has written articles on the dangers of accidental nuclear war and the limitations of civil defense against nuclear attacks in South Asia. In recent years his focus has been on capping South Asia’s nuclear arsenals. In particular he has been arguing for placing India's power reactors under safeguarding and not produce any more fissile material for weapon usage. Personal website of R. Rajaraman

M. V. Ramana		M. V. Ramana (Bangalore, India, shared membership with Rajaraman) a physicist by training, is currently a Fellow at the Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies in Environment and Development (CISED), Bangalore. He has held research positions at the University of Toronto, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Princeton University. He has taught at Boston University, Princeton University, and Yale University. He specializes in studying the Indian nuclear energy and weapons programs. Currently he is examining the economic viability and environmental impacts of the Indian nuclear power program. He is actively involved in the peace and anti-nuclear movements, and is associated with the Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament and Peace as well as Abolition-2000, a global network to abolish nuclear weapons. He is co-editor of Prisoners of the Nuclear Dream (New Delhi: Orient Longman, 2003) and author of Bombing Bombay? Effects of Nuclear Weapons and a Case Study of a Hypothetical Explosion (Cambridge, MA: International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, 1999).

Ole Reistad		Ole REISTAD (Oslo, Norway, shared membership with Mærli) is a research scientist with a joint appointment at the Institute of Physics in the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in Trondheim and at the Norwegian Radiation Protection Authority. Reistad's work thus far has focused primarily on the security and safety issues posed by the spent Russian naval nuclear fuel and retired Russian submarines on Russia's Kola Penninsula, in addition to more nuclear safety issues in Russia. Reistad is currently working on his PhD on Russian naval reactor design and issues related to spent fuel material attractiveness and criticality.

Henrik Salander		Henrik SALANDER (Stockholm, Sweden) is an Ambassador currently on leave from Sweden’s Foreign Ministry as the Secretary-General of the WMD Commission chaired by Hans Blix. He led Sweden’s delegation to the 2000 NPT Review Conference where Sweden, along with the six other members of the New Agenda Coalition (Brazil, Egypt, Ireland, Mexico, New Zealand and South Africa) extracted from the weapon states, 13 specific commitments to steps toward ending the arms race, reducing their arsenals and the danger of nuclear use, and establishing a framework for irreversible disarmament. Salander was Sweden’s Ambassador to the Geneva Conference on Disarmament (1999-2003) where he authored the 2002 “five ambassadors” compromise proposal that still is the basis for efforts there to start negotiations on an FMCT and other treaties. He also chaired the 2002 session of the Preparatory Committee for the 2005 NPT Review Conference.

Annette Schaper		Annette SCHAPER (Frankfurt, Germany, shared membership with Kalinowski) is senior research associate at the Peace Research Institute Frankfurt (PRIF) since 1992. Her research covers nuclear arms control and its technical aspects, including the test ban, a fissile material cut-off, verification of nuclear disarmament, fissile materials disposition, and nonproliferation problems arising from the civilian-military ambivalence of science and technology. She was a part time member of the German CD delegation in Geneva in the CTBT negotiations and member of the German delegation at the NPT Review and Extension Conference. Her former position was at the Institute of Nuclear Physics at Technical University Darmstadt where she became a co-founder of the Interdisciplinary Research Group in Science, Technology, and Security Policy. Schaper holds a Ph.D. in experimental physics from Düsseldorf University. Currently, she directs a project on transparency of nuclear arms control related information owned by the nuclear weapon possessing states.

Mycle Schneider		Mycle SCHNEIDER (shared membership with Yves Marignac) founded WISE-Paris in 1983 and directed it until 2003. He is currently an independent nuclear and energy consultant. Since 1997 he has provided information and consulting services to the Belgian Energy Minister, the French and German Environment Ministries, the International Atomic Energy Agency, Greenpeace, the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, the Worldwide Fund for Nature, the European Commission, the European Parliament's Scientific and Technological Option Assessment Panel and its General Directorate for Research, the Oxford Research Group, the French National Scientific Research Council, and the French Institute for Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety (IRSN). Since 2004 he is in charge of the Environment and Energy Strategies Lecture of the International MSc in Project Management for Environmental and Energy Engineering at the French Ecole des Mines in Nantes. In 1997, he shared with Japan's Jinzaburo Takagi (now deceased) Sweden's Right Livelihood Award "for serving to alert the world to the unparalleled dangers of plutonium to human life."

Shen Dingli		SHEN Dingli (Shanghai, China, shared membership with LI), a physicist by training, is a professor of international relations at Fudan University. He is the Executive Dean of Fudan University's Institute of International Studies and Deputy Director of Center for American Studies. He co-founded China's first non-government-based Program on Arms Control and Regional Security, at Fudan University. Dr. Shen teaches nonproliferation and international security, and China's foreign policy, in China and the US. His research areas cover China-U.S. security and nuclear relationship, regional security and nonproliferation issues, and China's foreign and defense policies. Dr. Shen is a member of IISS, and a number of other international organizations and editorial boards of academic journals. In January 2002, he was invited by Secretary General of the United Nations Kofi Annan to advise the SG of strategy panning for his second term, as the sole Chinese out of 40 persons chosen worldwide. Dr. Shen received his Ph.D. in physics in 1989 from Fudan University and did post-doc in arms control at Princeton University from 1989-1991. In 1997, he was awarded an Eisenhower Fellowship. From 1997-2000, he served as Fudan University's Director of Office of International Programs and Deputy Director of Fudan’s Committee of Research and Development.

Tatsujiro Suzuki		Tatsujiro SUZUKI (Tokyo, Japan) has a PhD in nuclear engineering from Tokyo University (1988). He is a Senior Research Scientist in the Central Research Institute of [Japan’s] Electric Power Industry in Japan as well as a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Energy Economics of Japan and Project Professor at the Graduate School of Law and Politics, University of Tokyo. He was Associate Director of MIT’s International Program on Enhanced Nuclear Power Safety from 1988-1993 and a Research Associate at MIT’s Center for International Studies (1993-95) where he co-authored a report on Japan's plutonium program. For the past 20 years, Suzuki has been deeply involved in providing technical and policy assessments of the international implications of Japan’s plutonium fuel-cycle policies and in examining the feasibility of interim spent-fuel storage as an alternative. He was appointed as a member of the Working Group on International Affairs of the Japan Atomic Energy Commission’s Long Term Planning Committee and now is a member of the of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry’s Advisory Committee on Energy (Nuclear Policy Subcommittee).

Frank von Hippel		Frank VON HIPPEL (Co-Chair, Princeton, USA) has a PhD in nuclear physics (1962). He is co-Director of Princeton’s Program on Science and Global Security. In the 1980s, as chairman of the Federation of American Scientists, he partnered with Evgenyi Velikhov in advising Mikhail Gorbachev on the technical basis for steps to end the nuclear arms race. In 1994-5, he served as Assistant Director for National Security in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. Von Hippel and his colleagues have worked on fissile material policy issues for the past 30 years, including contributions to: ending the U.S. program to foster the commercialization of plutonium breeder reactors, convincing President Gorbachev to embrace the idea of a Fissile Material Production Cutoff Treaty, launching the U.S.-Russian cooperative nuclear materials protection, control and accounting program, and broadening efforts to eliminate the use of high-enriched uranium in civilian reactors worldwide.

William Walker		William WALKER (UK) is Professor of International Relations at the University of St. Andrews. He is co-author of Plutonium and Highly Enriched Uranium 1996: World Inventories, Capabilities and Policies (SIPRI/Oxford University Press, 1997), author of Weapons of Mass Destruction and International Order (Adelphi Paper, 2004), and he has done much research on the domestic and international politics of reprocessing.

FORMER MEMBERS

Morten B. Mærli		Morten Bremer MÆRLI (Oslo, Norway, shared membership with Reistad) is a senior research fellow at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI), working on nuclear non-proliferation and the prevention of nuclear terrorism. He is a nuclear physicist by training. His doctoral thesis, titled Crude Nukes on the Loose? Preventing Nuclear Terrorism by Means of Optimum Nuclear Husbandry, Transparency, and Non-Intrusive Fissile Material Verification, assesses the risk of nuclear terrorism. The best threat reducing strategy is by far to control or eliminate the fissile material at its sources. Mærli has worked at the Norwegian Radiation Protection Authority, with control and protection of nuclear materials as his prime responsibility. He has experience with the current situation and practices concerning the handling, storing and security of fissile materials in Northwest Russia. He has been a technical consultant to the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.