The U.S.-based think tank Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI) released its 2014 NTI Nuclear Materials Security Index at the beginning of the year, making a public assessment of the security conditions of nuclear materials in 176 countries.

Of the 176, 25 countries have one kilogram or more of weapons-capable nuclear material, while the remaining 151 countries that have less than one kilogram or no material. The think tank called for governments worldwide to take action to ensure the security of the most dangerous material.

On February 25, NTI hosted a briefing seminar in Beijing together with the China Arms Control and Disarmament Association (CACDA) about the 2014 NTI index in order to introduce the report to Chinese experts on nuclear studies.

NTI Vice President Page Stoutland (WEI YAO)

While giving a general overview of the report, NTI Vice President Page Stoutland said that, despite much progress having been made, an effective and accountable global system is still needed for how nuclear materials should be secured to make sure that we protect the world from catastrophic nuclear terrorism.

The index is based on the assessment of the following five categories: Quantities and Sites, Security and Control Measures, Global Norms, Domestic Commitments and Capacity, and Risk Environment.

According to Stoutland, since the release of the 2012 NTI Index, seven countries — Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Mexico, Sweden, Ukraine and Viet Nam — have removed all or most of their stocks of weapons-grade nuclear material from their territories. However, nearly 2,000 metric tons of weapons-capable nuclear material remains spread across hundreds of sites around the globe with some of them poorly secured.

Among the countries with weapons-grade nuclear material, Belgium, Canada and Japan had best improved their situations compared to 2012. Among nuclear-armed states, France, the United Kingdom and the United States lead in the rankings, with France tied for seventh and the United Kingdom and the United States tied for 11th. China received an overall score of 64 points, ranking it at 20th.

While affirming the contribution of the nuclear material report towards nuclear security, Chinese experts pointed out that the index is still full of unscientific defects.

Liu Chong (WEI YAO)

Liu Chong, a researcher at the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, told Beijing Review that the assessment cannot be objective in its evaluation of a country's security system, as it is based on only the assessment of the above five category of data.

"For instance, when assessing security and control measures, drug tests were included as it is a serious social problem in the United States. But in China, drug taking is not as severe as it is in the United States," Liu said.

In addition, Liu said as NTI cannot collect complete data for some countries limited by their capacity, the accuracy of the report is debatable. For example, China has regulations on security measures for the transport of nuclear material, but the report neglected to include this in its assessment.