CRI听力:US Expert Expects 2016 Nuclear Security Summit to Highlight Anti-terrorism

William Tobey is a Senior Fellow of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University.

He used to serve on the National Security Council under three U.S. administrations.

He shared his expectations on the nuclear security summit in Washington.

"My hope would be that a commitment to a set of nuclear excellence principles. One example of how that does not exist today is that there are countries with weapon-usable material - highly enriched uranium or plutonium. That don't require armed guards to be on side of the facilities. It's quite remarkable and there is age of terrorism."

Tobey said there were some loopholes in preventing terrorists from obtaining nuclear material and technology.

"People associated with the Paris attack, and apparently these latest attacks are all part of the same group, had actually surveilled with video equipment a senior nuclear executive within Belgium who work at a facility with large quantities of highly enriched uranium. That's a serious issue. So we must be vigilant about the possibility that there could be an intersection between terrorism and nuclear material."

According to a report published by the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs recently, international joint efforts, including intelligence gathering and nuclear radiation detection at customs and borders, should be made to fight smuggling of highly enriched uranium or plutonium fuels.

According to Tobey, nuclear security is a special cooperative field where the United States and China have common interests.

"I think the United States and China have a great deal in common on this issue. We both face terrorism threats. We both have large nuclear establishments. China will be one of the fastest growing nuclear powers in the world, nuclear energy powers, and I think in order for that to have popular support within the country, there has to be a perception that the nuclear industry and nuclear weapons and materials are both safe and secure. And of course, the United States has similar interest."

This view is echoed by Daniel Roderick, President and Chief Executive Officer of Westinghouse Electric Company.

"Well I really see the overall cooperation as a win-win. I think that everything that we see right now is we want to continue to expand that cooperation and agreement going into the next sets of units domestically in China, as well as looking globally at where opportunities are that the countries can cooperate."

China and the U.S. have conducted a series of exchanges since the signing in 1998 of the China-U.S. Agreement for Cooperation Concerning Peaceful Use of Nuclear Energy.

The AP1000 nuclear reactor co-designed by China and the U.S. is about to enter the market and the two countries have made substantial progress in re-modifying the miniature neutron-source reactor.