WILLEMSTAD – Nuclear material was identified in Curaçao during an official inventory carried out in 2019, according to documents accompanying proposed Kingdom legislation on strengthened international nuclear safeguards.
The explanatory memorandum to the proposed Kingdom Act states that “some nuclear material” is present in Curaçao. However, the documents do not specify what type of material was found, how much is present or where it is located.
The inventory was conducted as part of preparations for enhanced international oversight of nuclear materials within the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
The finding does not necessarily mean that Curaçao possesses material intended for nuclear power generation or nuclear weapons.
The Dutch government explains in the same documentation that small quantities of nuclear material can be found in ordinary civilian and industrial applications. Depleted uranium, for example, can be used as shielding around radiation sources in hospitals. Small quantities of nuclear material can also be present at universities or in equipment used for certain drilling activities.
Curaçao stands out among the Caribbean parts of the Kingdom because nuclear material was identified during its inventory. According to the explanatory memorandum, inventories carried out in Aruba, Sint Maarten and the Caribbean Netherlands in 2025 apparently did not identify nuclear material.
The Curaçao inventory dates back to 2019, but the information has now emerged publicly in connection with legislation submitted to the Dutch Parliament concerning a new safeguards agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
The new framework follows an Additional Protocol concluded between the Kingdom of the Netherlands and the IAEA in Vienna on December 4, 2025.
The purpose is to give the international nuclear watchdog greater ability to verify that nuclear material is being used exclusively for peaceful purposes and to detect possible undeclared nuclear activities.
The existing safeguards arrangements date from 1973. According to the government, those rules no longer provide the IAEA with all the instruments considered necessary under the strengthened international safeguards system.
The documents provide no indication that the nuclear material identified in Curaçao presents a danger to the population or that it is connected to prohibited nuclear activities.
However, once the new system applies to Curaçao, the island will be required to provide a more comprehensive initial declaration of the nuclear material present and subsequently report relevant changes.
That will bring the nuclear material identified in the 2019 inventory under a more extensive international reporting and verification framework.