Fissile Material (Cut-off) Treaty: Definitions, Verification, and Scope

This paper aims to present a summary of the issues related to definitions, verification and scope taking into account the most recent discussions that have taken place in the expert community. The first section considers various approaches to defining the term fissile material for FM(C)T purposes. The second section examines how different approaches to definitions would affect the treaty verification activities; both downstream verification as well as verification measures that would have to be implemented at production facilities. The final section presents an overview of the measures that would be required to extend the scope of the treaty to pre-existing stocks and to ensure irreversible elimination of excess military material.