Beijing has endorsed and engaged international cooperation in minimizing the use of high-enriched uranium for civilian use to "boost nuclear security", Miao Wei, minister of industry and information technology, said on Tuesday.

Miao made the remarks at a news conference in Seoul in response to the Seoul Communique, a brainchild of the two-day 2012 Seoul Nuclear Security Summit.

Released in the wake of the summit's two plenary sessions, the communique encourages countries to "take measures to minimize the use of high-enriched uranium, including through the conversion of reactors from high-enriched to low-enriched uranium fuel".

The communique also called on countries to announce specific voluntary actions by the end of 2013.

"China has cooperated with the United States in this field," Miao said, adding that China has signed a cooperative agreement with a US lab to convert a made-in-China miniature neutron source reactor for high-enriched uranium.

Five more countries, including Ghana, Nigeria and Pakistan, have imported this type of reactor from China.

"We would also like to help them to implement a similar conversion of the exported reactors," Miao said.

Experts said civilian-use reactors with high-enriched uranium are undermining nuclear security due to lack of protection.

Zhu Xuhui, a researcher with the China National Nuclear Corporation and an expert in uranium enrichment and nuclear fuel, told China Daily that research reactors worldwide, most purchased by academic institutions and colleges, are "posing threats to nuclear security" due to lack of funding in security facilities and manpower.

The US and the former Soviet Union, the leading nuclear technology powers, started exporting reactors in the 1950s, including research reactors containing high-enriched uranium with a density greater than 90 percent.

"Once obtained by terrorists, high-density uranium can be extracted and used in processes that could cause a nuclear explosion," said Zhu.

In recent decades, China, the US, Russia and other nuclear reactor producers have been seeking to repatriate or convert such reactors in coordination with the International Atomic Energy Agency.

However, the process of converting reactors worldwide is slow, Zhu said.

"It is sometimes undecided who pays for the upgrading work, and a successful conversion requires a specific design for every single reactor that has varying details," he said.

Fight smuggling

In addition to minimizing the use of high-enriched uranium in civilian use, fighting nuclear smuggling was stressed in the Seoul Communique to show the global call for combating illicit trafficking of nuclear and radioactive materials.

Several nations have passed export control laws to regulate nuclear transfers, and the communique called for "further utilization of legal, intelligence and financial tools to effectively prosecute offenses".

The threat of criminal organizations obtaining nuclear materials still hangs over the international community, experts said.

From July 2010 to June 2011, members of the IAEA reported 172 incidents to the organization's illicit trafficking database, which was established in 1995 to "record and analyze incidents of illicit trafficking in nuclear and other radioactive material".

Although 126 of the unauthorized activities were reported without any apparent connection to criminal activity, in almost a third of them nuclear material was reported as non-recovered, the IAEA said in its Nuclear Security Report 2011.

"The IAEA boasts more than 150 member states, which provide it with most information it needs about the incidents in which nuclear and other radioactive materials are out of regulatory control," said Li Hong, secretary-general of the China Arms Control and Disarmament Association.

The communique also encouraged countries to provide necessary information to the IAEA's illicit trafficking database.

"The database has recorded the most comprehensive details while the IAEA can also make persuasive technical evaluations of the hidden risk of the incidents," Li said.

In the meantime, the communique calls for strengthening cooperation among countries to fight nuclear trafficking offenses through Interpol's Radiological and Nuclear Terrorism Prevention Unit.

Interpol, which boasts a widespread investigation network and staff team, has an "incomparable advantage" in searching for evidence and finding suspects in nuclear trafficking cases, Li said.

Interpol Secretary-General Ronald K. Noble, attending the summit on Monday, said global cooperation is needed to crack down on the illegal trafficking and theft of weapons-usable nuclear materials by terrorists. "Preventing any kind of terrorist attack, including one involving nuclear materials, requires a global strategy - no one country or organization can hope to achieve success in isolation," Noble said to The Korea Times.

Also, countries should promote cooperation with both the IAEA and Interpol to benefit from the strengths of both organizations, Li said.

"A multilateral framework is much more efficient and powerful than a unilateral effort," Li said.