Backgrounder: Major issues about nuclear security

BEIJING, April 11 (Xinhua) -- The two-day Nuclear Security Summit is scheduled to be held on Monday in Washington, aiming at gathering the international community to discuss securing vulnerable nuclear materials and preventing acts of nuclear terrorism.

The discovery of nuclear power is a double-edged sword: It has brought both development and weapons to devastate human society.

The following are some major issues related to nuclear security.

In 1945, the United States successfully tested the first atomic bomb. Its power astonished the world.

In the same year, the United States dropped two atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki to end World War II, killing about 300,000 people of a total of 475,000 residents in the two cities.

After the war, the international community began to seek a ban on nuclear weapons in order to avoid future catastrophes like the ones in both Japanese cities.

In July 1957, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) was founded to inspect existing nuclear facilities and promote the peaceful use of nuclear energy.

In July 1968, the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) opened for signature, calling for general and comprehensive nuclear disarmament and peaceful nuclear power for civilian use.