By Steve Hirsch and Greg Webb
Global Security Newswire

U.S. President George W. Bush yesterday submitted an enhanced nuclear safeguards agreement to the Senate for its approval, Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham announced last night.  The agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency, called an Additional Protocol to the existing U.S. safeguards agreement, was signed in 1998.  Bush needs the formal advice and consent of the Senate before he can ratify the agreement.

U.S. officials said the Additional Protocol would have no great effect on U.S. industry, other than to require more than 100 nuclear-related facilities, mostly manufacturing plants, to provide the IAEA with loose descriptions of their activities.

The agency adopted a model Additional Protocol in 1997 after the post-Gulf War discovery of Iraq’s massive clandestine nuclear weapons program had spurred a multi-year process to strengthen international safeguards.  The U.S. agreement is virtually identical to the model agreement, officials said, but the United States is reserving the right to deny access to or data collection from nuclear weapons facilities.

Under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, the five declared nuclear weapon states — the United Kingdom, France, China, Russia and the United States — are not required to submit to nuclear inspections, but all have offered the IAEA access to parts of their civilian nuclear activities.

The new reporting requirements will affect commercial manufacturers such as those producing graphite control rods, uranium enrichment equipment and zirconium tubes to clad uranium reactor fuel.

Under its existing safeguards agreement, the United States has made more than 200 civilian nuclear facilities available for IAEA inspection, but officials said the IAEA only inspects four or five.

China’s Additional Protocol

China became the first declared nuclear weapon state to bring its Additional Protocol into force when it ratified the agreement March 28, according to a foreign ministry statement.

Under the new protocol, China will provide enhanced information about its nuclear trade with non-nuclear weapon states, according to a nonproliferation expert who has discussed the agreement with IAEA officials.  China apparently will not, however, provide any additional access to or information about its domestic activities, the expert said.

“China is the first among the five nuclear states that has completed the necessary legal procedure, which fully demonstrates China’s firm stand on opposing nuclear proliferation, supporting the IAEA in enhancing the existing safeguards regime and fulfilling its obligation in nonproliferation,” the Chinese Foreign Ministry said.

China’s ratification will bring a measure into force that will strengthen agency’s “verification tools” in China, IAEA spokeswoman Melissa Fleming said.

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