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Arthur Atkins

Arthur Atkins
Spring 1994 Fellow
Arms Control Association
Arthur Atkins
Spring 1994 Fellow
Arms Control Association

Major Fellowship Activities: Atkins became involved with tracking the developing dispute with North Korea over its suspected nuclear weapons program.  He updated and expanded a factsheet on North Korean nuclear facilities and a chronology of the ongoing North Korean dispute.  He became the acting staff member responsible for tracking and maintaining office resources on conventional arms control issues.  He tracked international events and U.S. domestic and foreign policies in regard to conventional arms control and export control issues.  He attended press conferences, congressional hearings, and briefings on related topics.  He wrote numerous news articles for Arms Control Today and maintained their existing arms transfer register.

Current Activities: Atkins is the Assistant Deputy Administrator for Global Material Security at the U.S. Department of Energy/National Nuclear Security Administration. In this capacity, he is responsible for leadership of DOE/NNSA programs that increase the security of nuclear and other radioactive materials around the globe and enable the detection of illicit trafficking of those materials. The Office of Global Material Security (GMS) works with partner to understand their nuclear and radiological material security objectives and provides technical expertise and financial resources to assist them in meeting these objectives. He was previously Associate Assistant Deputy Administrator for International Material Protection and Cooperation where he assisted in overseeing the implementation of the nuclear Material Protection, Control, and Accounting Program, which improves the security of weapons-usable nuclear materials in Russia and other partner countries, and the Second Line of Defense Program, which seeks to eliminate pathways for nuclear smuggling through the installation of radiation detection equipment at borders, ports, and other locations. He was previously Director of the Office of Weapons Material Protection in the Office of International Material Protection and Cooperation at NNSA. He managed an office within the cooperative Material Protection, Control, and Accounting Program that focuses on upgrading security systems at Russian nuclear weapons development and material production facilities to prevent the theft and/or diversion of highly-attractive fissile material.

…The opportunity to work with ACA solidified my interest in security studies. I hope to continue to work in research and analysis on issues related to this field. Through the Fellowship, I have been able to familiarize myself with conventional arms transfers issues and hope to continue working on this issue.