Nuclear Security Summit held in Washington gathered participants from fifty countries and international organizations aiming to reinforce international cooperation in order to prevent nuclear terrorism. President of the Republic of Finland, Sauli Niinistö, and Director General of Finnish Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority (STUK), Petteri Tiippana, represented Finland in the summit.
At the summit Finland stressed the importance of national capability to detect threatening situations and to act in them. President Niinistö also stated that the sharing of information and intelligence related to nuclear security is of paramount importance in the fight against nuclear terrorism. “No single player can be aware of the overall situation. Gathering information is of the utmost importance,” stated President Niinistö. The importance of information sharing was also stressed in a joint statement issued after the summit.
At the Nuclear Security summit, 23 countries and INTERPOL together published a declaration prepared by Finland in which the countries committed that they will develop their radioactive material detection systems so that the illegal use and trafficking of the radioactive materials can be prevented better. The declaration will improve safety and open up new opportunities for developing national and regional activities.
Finland has been developing its own nuclear security architecture through cooperation between different authorities. With the existing remote support system radiation experts from STUK can view, analyze and provide reachback support for measurements performed for example by Finnish customs or police officers. In the REPO – Nuclear security development project Environics and few other Finnish companies have developed a commercial version of the system that can also be exported to other countries. Click here to learn more.
Link to the original NSS 2016 Statement on National Nuclear Detection Architectures
