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IAEA Reconsiders Small Quantities Protocol
The International Atomic Energy Agency has circulated a confidential report asking the 35 states on its Board of Governors to rescind the Small Quantities Protocol, warning that it could be used as a loophole in the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, Reuters reported yesterday (see GSN, April 20). The protocol allows treaty members to forgo notifying the agency of natural uranium stocks up to 10 tons, according to Reuters. The protocol “has the effect of holding in abeyance the implementation of most of the safeguards measures,” along with “obligations to provide certain information and the agency’s right to request access to relevant locations,” according to the agency’s report. “As a result the [agency] does not independently verify a state’s initial confirmation that it meets the requirements for (the protocol), nor that that state continues to do so,” the report says. Eighty-six of the 189 NPT member states have signed a Small Quantities Protocol, Reuters reported. Once the protocol is signed, a country is assured that the agency will have minimal inspections authority, one diplomat from a board member state said. “Once you sign the Small Quantities Protocol, you’re off the hook,” said the diplomat. The report recommends that the board not allow any new protocols to be signed and that Director General Mohamed ElBaradei be allowed to request that all current signatories agree to cancel the agreements, according to Reuters. The issue is likely to be discussed at the next regular board meeting in June. Meanwhile, the Board of Governors is expected to refuse Saudi Arabia’s recent request to sign the protocol, diplomats on the board told Reuters (Louis Charbonneau, Reuters, April 26).
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