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ElBaradei Proposes Measures to Strengthen NPT
International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Mohamed ElBaradei has proposed seven measures to strengthen the 35-year-old Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, the agency announced today in a press statement (see GSN, Jan. 28). “It is clear that recent events have placed the NPT and the regime supporting it under unprecedented stress, exposing some of its inherent limitations and pointing to areas that need to be adjusted,” ElBaradei said in the statement. ElBaradei proposed: — A five-year moratorium on building new facilities for uranium enrichment and plutonium separation; — Accelerated efforts to convert research reactors operating with highly enriched uranium to use low-enriched uranium; — Establishment of the Additional Protocol as the norm for verifying treaty compliance; — Calling on the U.N. Security Council to act swiftly and decisively on the case of any country that withdraws from the treaty; — Calling on states to act on the Security Council’s Resolution 1540, to prosecute illicit trading in nuclear materials and technology; — Calling on all five declared nuclear weapon states party to the NPT to accelerate nuclear disarmament; amd — Recognition of existing security tensions that promote proliferation – in regions like the Middle East and the Korean Peninsula – by providing security assurances where necssary. This year’s treaty review conference is scheduled for May 2-27 in New York, according to the statement. “Some of the needed fixes can be made in May, but only if governments are ready to act,” said ElBaradei (International Atomic Energy Agency release, Feb. 2).
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