A Comprehensive Nuclear Arms Reduction Regime: Interim Report (2001)

The Committee on International Security and Arms Control (CISAC) is a standing committee of the National Academy of Sciences with a membership of 18 experts made up of former government and military officials and current and former academics. This CISAC study has been led by Major General William F. Burns (USA, Ret.) and Professor Steve Fetter (University of Maryland). The study director is Dr. David Hafemeister. The CISAC panel has met on the study four times: April 21-22, 2000; August 13-17, 2000; November 16, 2000 and January 22-23, 2001. Briefings were given by DOE, DOD and CIA officials on November 16 and by former and present DOE, State Department, and OSTP officials on January 23.

Members of the Committee and staff have interacted with DOE staff from the Office of Nonproliferation and National Security as well as with officials from other parts of DOE and its national laboratories. Additional contacts have been established with officials from the State Department, the Department of Defense, the U.S. General Accounting Office and the Congressional Research Service. CISAC staff attended the annual meeting of the Institute for Nuclear Materials Management (July 16-20) and have had technical discussions with scientists at the Los Alamos (July 25-27), Livermore (November 10), Sandia (July 24), Pacific Northwest (November 8-9) and Brookhaven (October 26) National Laboratories. Numerous reports have been obtained from these and other meetings. ¹

The first nine months of the study have been primarily focused on the technical aspects of a potential monitoring regime, including specific monitoring technologies. CISAC is reviewing draft materials that will be the basis for the final report. The remaining time will broaden the focus, developing options for creating a comprehensive regime that could eventually encompass all nuclear warheads and the predominant