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Fact Sheet
NTI — Working for a Safer World
The Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI) is a non-profit organization with a mission to strengthen global security by reducing the risk of use and preventing the spread of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons, and to work to build the trust, transparency and security which are preconditions to the ultimate fulfillment of the Non-Proliferation Treaty’s goals and ambitions.
Since governments have most of the resources and authority in addressing the threats from nuclear, biological and chemical weapons, it is not just what NTI can do directly to reduce threats that matters -- it's also what NTI can persuade others to do.
That is why NTI's focus is on leverage – combining its influential voice with direct action projects to catalyze greater, more effective action by governments and international organizations.
NTI's Leadership
NTI is a place of common ground where people with different ideological views are working together to close the gap between the global threats from nuclear, biological and chemical weapons and the global response.
Co-chaired by philanthropist Ted Turner and former U.S. Senator Sam Nunn, NTI is governed by an expert and influential Board of Directors with members from the United States, Japan, India, Pakistan, China, Jordan, Sweden, France and the United Kingdom. Board members include:
- Joan Rohlfing, President;
- Dr. Alexei Arbatov, Head, Center for International Security at Institute of World Economy and International Relations, Russian Academy of Sciences;
- Charles B. Curtis, President Emeritus and Board Member of the Nuclear Threat Initiative
- Pete Domenici, Senior Fellow, Bipartisan Policy Center;
- Susan Eisenhower, President of The Eisenhower Group;
- Ambassador Rolf Ekeus, Chairman of the Board, Stockholm International Peace Research Institute;
- General Eugene Habiger USAF (Ret.), former Commander in Chief of the U.S. Strategic Command;
- HRH Prince El Hassan bin Talal of Jordan;
- Igor S. Ivanov, former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Russia
- Pierre Lellouche, Member of the French National Assembly;
- U.S. Senator Richard G. Lugar (R-Indiana);
- Dr. Jessica T. Mathews, President of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace;
- Ronald L. Olson, partner in the Los Angeles office of Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP
- Judge Hisashi Owada, International Court of Justice;
- Dr. William Perry, former U.S. Secretary of Defense;
- Dr. Nafis Sadik, Special Advisor to the UN Secretary-General;
- Professor Amartya Sen, Lamont University Professor and Professor of Economics and Philosophy, Harvard University;
- Rt. Hon. Shirley Williams, House of Lords, UK;
- Professor Fujia Yang, Academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Advisors to the Board of Directors include leading figures in science, business and international security. Advisors to the Board include:
- Warren Buffett, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway Inc.;
- Dr. David A. Hamburg, President Emeritus of Carnegie Corporation of New York;
- Siegfried S. Hecker, Director Emeritus of the Los Alamos National Laboratory;
- Frederick Iseman, Chairman and Managing Partner of Caxton-Iseman Capital Inc.;
- George F. Russell Jr., Co-Chairman of the EastWest Institute and founder of the Frank Russell Company.
NTI's staff includes experts in international affairs, nonproliferation, security and military issues, public health, medicine and communications, who have operational experience in their areas of specialty.
NTI's Work
NTI is an operational organization — actively engaged in developing and implementing projects that bring new strategies, new partnerships and effective action to reduce the dangers from nuclear, biological and chemical weapons.
NTI is working in several focused areas to develop new frameworks and approaches for addressing the most urgent global threats from nuclear, biological and chemical weapons in order to prevent terrorsts from getting a nuclear bomb and to strengthen global health and security:
- Securing, reducing and eliminating the use of Highly Enriched Uranium;
- Removing and securing nuclear materials around the globe;
- Preventing the spread of technology to make nuclear weapons materials;
- Strengthening security for nuclear materials through the World Institute for Nuclear Security (WINS);
- Promoting the safe and secure practice of the biomedical sciences to help prevent bioterrorism;
- Creating Regional Disease Surveillance Networks to detect and respond to infectious diseases.
NTI's work addresses high-risk situations and leverages greater action for threat reduction.
Below are examples of NTI's work:
Last Best Chance
Last Best Chance is a 45-minute film that NTI produced with additional funding from the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation to raise awareness of the global nuclear terrorism threat linked to unsecured nuclear weapons and materials around the world. Copies of the film are available online at www.lastbestchance.org.
The results:
Last Best Chance attracted significant media coverage, including full programs devoted to the subject on Nightline and Meet the Press (with a combined audience of more than 7 million people), a feature story in The Wall Street Journal, segments on CBS Sunday Morning, CNN and Fox News Channel, and opinion columns in The New Yorker and regional papers around the United States.
More than 100,000 people have ordered the film through the lastbestchance.org website and more than half of those who have ordered the film have indicated that they want to keep receiving information on these issues and learn what they can do to help reduce these threats.
The cable network HBO broadcast the film in the United States several times in October 2005.
Widely viewed and being taken seriously by key government officials, the film has been seen by senior government officials from the White House Homeland Security Council, the U.S. Department of Energy, the Department of Homeland Security, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Department of Defense. The film has also been viewed by members of Congress and their staffs and state legislative leaders from across the country.
The film is being used to motivate and train those responsible for preventing nuclear terrorism – important validation of the technical accuracy and powerful message of the film.
Project Vinca
More than two and a half bombs’ worth of highly enriched uranium (HEU) stored in a civilian research reactor with inadequate security in Vinca, Serbia, were vulnerable to theft by terrorists, so NTI worked closely with the U.S. Department of State, the IAEA, Russia and Serbia to facilitate transfer of over 100 pounds of weapons-usable nuclear material in the form of fresh reactor fuel to more secure storage in Russia for elimination through blend down. NTI’s contribution of $5 million supports the repackaging and removal of hundreds of kilograms of highly radioactive spent reactor fuel for ultimate transport and disposition in Russia.
The results:
A contract was signed in September 2006 for the removal and transport of the spent fuel. NTI has also contributed to the design and construction of a new storage facility for low-level radioactive waste, a significant amount of which was already poorly stored on-site at Vinca, and additional waste which will also be generated by the spent fuel repackaging process. The U.S. Department of State said NTI’s partnership was “key to the project’s success.”
The total cost of these two projects is anticipated to be around $30 million. In addition to NTI’s catalytic contribution of $5 million, the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom, Hungary, and the IAEA’s own budget have now pledged over $12 million in support of securely removing this dangerous material from the heart of Europe.
The U.S. government pledged to take action to secure vulnerable materials at 24 other similar reactors throughout the world. In June 2004, U.S. Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham announced a Global Threat Reduction Initiative to secure, remove or dispose of a broad range of vulnerable nuclear and radiological materials around the world, and dedicated more than $450 million to this effort.
The New York Times ran an editorial calling the Vinca operation a “prototype for future cooperative efforts” and urging the government to allow increased flexibility in spending U.S. government funds in this arena.
Russian Minister of Atomic Energy Alexander Rumyantsev pledged increased cooperation with the United States and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to remove weapons usable material from Soviet-era reactors.
Strengthening IAEA Programs to Secure Vulnerable Nuclear Material
NTI contributed to and leveraged additional support for the IAEA's Nuclear Security Fund, which finances the Agency's critical and under-funded work to help member states strengthen the physical security of nuclear materials around the world.
The results:
The IAEA hired several trained nuclear security experts -- effectively doubling the capacity of the IAEA's physical security program and expanding the IAEA's ability to
1) review security for nuclear materials at facilities around the world; 2) identify needed security upgrades; and 3) organize contributions from donor states to support upgrade implementation.
The IAEA has visited over a dozen member states to provide advice and review the progress in implementing physical protection systems, including missions in 2003 to Bulgaria, Iran, Ukraine, and Turkey. The IAEA has also conducted physical protection workshops and training programs involving dozens of other states.
NTI's grant of $1.15 million was immediately matched by a pledge from U.S. Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham and has helped leverage more than $26 million in additional support from over two-dozen nations.
WHO-NTI Global Emergency Outbreak Response Fund
Since improved disease detection, surveillance and response are critical to addressing biological threats, NTI committed $500,000 to establish the WHO-NTI Global Emergency Outbreak Response Fund to strengthen the World Health Organization's ability to respond to an infectious disease outbreak, whether the outbreak is naturally occurring or intentionally caused. With this fund, WHO is now able to send teams of epidemiologists to investigate and respond to reports of disease outbreaks within 24 hours.
The results:
The WHO-NTI Fund has supported rapid response to several threats to global public health and security, including the SARS outbreaks in China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Vietnam, Canada and the Philippines; Ebola in the Republic of Congo; and avian influenza in Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam. The fund has increased attention to the importance of rapid response and has leveraged millions of dollars in contributions from nations and other organizations to replenish it.
Mission Approach and Funding Philosophy
NTI advocates threat reduction solutions, raises public awareness and undertakes direct action projects that demonstrate innovative ways to reduce threats.
The majority of NTI's awards support operational activities that NTI has a strong hand in developing. While there is no formal award-making cycle, NTI will consider unsolicited projects that:
address significant high-risk situations;
generate additional funding and leverage action for threat reduction; or otherwise
promote the core objectives of NTI.
The Nuclear Threat Initiative was established in January 2001 as a private foundation. On July 1, 2003, NTI changed its status from a private operating foundation to a public charity, enabling it to accept contributions from organizations and individuals. All of NTI's activities are conducted with full transparency with governments.
To learn more about NTI, go to About NTI section.
Get involved with NTI by making a tax deductible contribution or register to receive an email with the day's Global Security Newswire headlines.
