Progress on protecting nuclear materials against theft and nuclear facilities against acts of sabotage has slowed significantly over the past two years, according to a new report from the Nuclear Threat Initiative, a nongovernmental organisation based in Washington DC.

The decline in the rate of improvement to national regulatory structures and the global nuclear security architecture reverses a trend of substantial improvements between 2012 and 2018 and is “an alarming development at a time of growing global disorder and disruption,” the NTI said.

It said that to reverse the decline in nuclear security improvements, countries must build a more effective global nuclear security architecture.