An Assessment of the Nuclear Security Centers of Excellence

At the 2010 Nuclear Security Summit, a number of countries announced they were establishing centers of excellence to provide technical, scientific, and educational support to assist in developing a robust “nuclear security culture,” both nationally and internationally. A number of other centers had also been established prior to the summit, including those associated with the International Atomic Energy Agency.

An assessment of the existing and planned centers indicates that much closer coordination and collaboration among the centers is needed in order to optimize their full potential and to ensure their long-term sustainability.

In this policy analysis brief, Dr. Alan Heyes, a senior visiting research fellow at the Centre for Science and Security Studies in the Department of War Studies at King’s College London, makes recommendations to realize these goals.