Nonproliferation Negotiations: The Global Fuel Game

Global nuclear fuel cycle governance is shaped as much by diplomacy, trust, and institutional design as by technology. Nonproliferation Negotiations: The Global Fuel Game is a role-playing negotiation exercise that places participants at the center of an international effort to establish a multinational framework for enriched fuel supply under evolving geopolitical and market conditions. As Part Three of a three-part interactive series, this session builds on the technical design and operational safeguards challenges explored in Parts One and Two, extending the discussion into the international arena. Participants confront the complexities of aligning national interests, commercial realities, and nonproliferation obligations in a globalized fuel cycle. Participants are assigned roles representing supplier states, consumer states, international organizations, industry consortia, and civil society observers. Each role includes defined objectives, constraints, and incentives, some of which are intentionally non-public. Through a sequence of bilateral and multilateral negotiations, teams seek to craft a workable agreement addressing fuel supply assurance, safeguards implementation, transparency measures, and dispute resolution mechanisms. Facilitators introduce dynamic injects—such as geopolitical tensions, safeguards findings, or sudden shifts in fuel demand—to test the resilience of emerging agreements. The exercise culminates in a negotiated framework, followed by a structured debrief examining what enabled or hindered consensus. This session is particularly well suited to GLOBAL’s international audience, offering insights into why fuel cycle agreements are difficult to achieve and how technical, political, and institutional considerations intersect. By experiencing these dynamics firsthand, participants gain a deeper appreciation for the role of safeguards, stewardship, and trust in sustaining peaceful nuclear cooperation. Together, these three events form a coherent learning arc—from design, to operation, to global governance—underscoring the central role of nonproliferation and nuclear material management across the entire fuel cycle.