Five US laboratories are involved in the COE, according to Moniz.

"There's a lot of technology development that we can still do for detection, for forensics. So I think this is going to be a terrific ongoing partnership," Moniz said.

"Now that we have the facility, China will be training Chinese and other experts, and we will continue, especially through our national laboratories, to work on the training, on the technology," Moniz continued.

"We will work together to develop new approaches to training and security, so it's just going to be a terrific collaboration and building on what we've done before."

Xu mentioned that President Xi Jinping has attached a great deal of importance to reducing the use of high-energy uranium.

"The COE will serve the Asia Pacific region and can conduct training for all the countries of the world that have the need," Xu said.

"We certainly support this center becoming a regional resource. So we see China as playing that very important role. And we completely support that, and we will help in any way we can," Moniz said. "We still need more COEs around the world, also. So it's a good model," he added.

Allan Fong in Washington contributed to this story.

leshuodong@chinadailyusa.com