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U.S. Wants Increase in IAEA Nonproliferation Efforts
U.S. President George W. Bush is pressing for a larger International Atomic Energy Agency role in nonproliferation efforts while pushing other countries to step up export controls, the Los Angeles Times reported Saturday (see GSN, June 21). Nonproliferation officials are also pushing for more cooperation between countries and an increase in efforts to combat what they perceive as an greater threat of nuclear terrorism, according to the Times. Robert Joseph, U.S. undersecretary of state for arms control, said that while the black market network led by Pakistani nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan has been largely “put out of business,” other networks exist and are being targeted by the United States. None of these other networks are believed to be as extensive as the Khan ring. The U.N. nuclear watchdog, for its part, increased safeguards and monitoring following the discovery of the Khan network, and is working to better process public information and intelligence supplied by the United States and other countries. It is spending $1 million annually to purchase satellite images and finance a six-person intelligence until, and last year created a system for collecting information on nations seeking nuclear technology. “We need to get all the support possible from member states in terms of information sharing, particularly related to procurement activities,” said IAEA spokesman Mark Gwozdecky. IAEA officials said intelligence sharing between the agency and the United States slowed after 2003 when IAEA director Mohamed ElBaradei went against the Bush administration’s assertion that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. Relations became further strained when ElBaradei refused to refer Iran to the U.N. Security Council following the discovery of secret Iranian nuclear facilities. The recent U.S. approval of a third term for ElBaradei has strengthened relations, the Times reported. The U.S. Senate in March 2004 approved the Additional Protocol to the IAEA safeguards agreement, which would allow for more intrusive inspections of U.S. nuclear sites. The White House hopes to see Congress approve legislation implementing the protocol this summer. The Bush administration aims to make the Additional Protocol the standard that must be met for countries to obtain nuclear technology for civilian efforts. Washington also wants to improve the U.N. agency’s power to verify that countries are keeping the terms of nuclear agreements. However, IAEA officials are considering powers beyond the president’s vision. The agency is looking to extend its authority to explore the acquisition of technology that could be used to violate the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. Some Bush administration officials are reluctant to give the agency this much power. “Right now, different people have different views and it hasn't come down to a formal administration decision,” said a State Department official. “It is very fluid.” Others are concerned that any expansion of the agency’s power would require boosting the expertise of IAEA scientists and technicians, according to the Times. “A building in Vienna with a lot of people who are acquiring knowledge or expertise in nuclear weapons represents a proliferation risk. People sign confidentiality agreements to come to work here, but that probably would not be sufficient for the U.S. and others,” said a Western diplomat at the agency (Doug Frantz and Sonni Efron, Los Angeles Times, June 26). Meanwhile, the Bush administration continues to push ahead with counterproliferation strategy known by nuclear experts as “NPT Plus.” The effort is designed to stop the spread of nuclear materials despite the failure of diplomats to agree on strategies at the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty conference in May, the Daily Yomiuri reported today (see GSN, May 27). “The Bush administration perceives the NPT review process as a forum that is, unto itself, a debating society,” said Leonard Spector, deputy director of the Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Monterey Institute of International Studies. “These gatherings have at best a modest impact on the treaty, and the real action is elsewhere.” Experts acknowledge many of the president’s initiatives to counter proliferation have been successful. These include: expansion of the Proliferation Security Initiative; the formation of a 35-member IAEA committee to ensure greater NPT compliance and strengthen verification; and use of the U.N. Security Council to criminalize proliferation. However, some view the actions of the United States as weakening the NPT review process. “Given the context of U.S. power, someone needs to do some deep thinking about where our legitimacy is and how do we move forward in a way that gives us the moral high ground and therefore the legitimacy necessary to deal with these nuclear issues,” said Elizabeth Turpen, a former Senate nuclear policy adviser (Al Schleicher, Daily Yomiuri, June 27).
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