Global Security Newswire

A significant number of nations have failed to demonstrate that they have met the requirements of a U.N. resolution demanding efforts to prevent terrorists from acquiring nuclear and other WMD materials, the Associated Press reported Saturday. Some of these states are suppliers of uranium, which would be converted for use in a nuclear weapon (see GSN, Dec. 7, 2009).

U.N. Security Council Resolution 1540 requires countries to undertake actions to prevent acts of terrorism involving biological, chemical, nuclear and radiological weapons. It also "imposes strict reporting requirements on states, but few have fully met them," the International Commission on Nonproliferation and Nuclear Disarmament found in a December 2009 report.

The resolution is the only worldwide legal framework that seeks to cut off extremist organizations from nuclear technology; all U.N. member states are obligated to follow its strictures.

While more than 160 nations have filed WMD security reports, many documents offer scant details on actions taken. The deadline passed in October 2004, but 29 countries have not submitted any reports, among them uranium-mining African states such as the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Malawi, Niger and Zambia. Uranium discovery and development work is also under way in Gabon, Guinea, Mali and Mauritania -- nations that have also not filed their reports.

Enforcement of Resolution 1540 is expected to receive special attention at the Obama administration's nuclear security summit, which is scheduled for next week in Washington.

Mexican Ambassador to the United Nations Claude Heller, who leads the U.N. oversight committee on Resolution 1540, said he intends to hold conferences with states that have not complied with the mandate.

"It is a legally binding regime that was adopted by the Security Council," Heller told AP. "It is not up to governments to say yes we will report or not."

The U.N. oversight committee in a January review found that many governments had failed to report on whether WMD associated activities had been made illegal in their country and whether materials security measures were conducted.

The Shinkolobwe, Congo mine that produced the uranium in the nuclear bomb the United States used on the Japanese city of Hiroshima during World War II has been officially closed for decades. However, thousands of miners have been removing cobalt and possibly uranium from the site in recent years. The International Atomic Energy Agency has worried that the mine and a nuclear research reactor in the Congolese capital, Kinshasa, might not have adequate security.

Niger also has enormous quantities of high-grade uranium and in the past has been the planet's third-largest producer of the nuclear material.

Analysts worry that independent actors such as smugglers could supply nuclear-related materials to countries with illegal nuclear weapons programs. Iran, which maintains that its nuclear program has only peaceful purposes, is understood to require additional international uranium stocks (see related GSN story, today).

Terrorists could also use loose nuclear material to produce radiological "dirty bombs," according to AP.

Reporting under the resolution "is important especially for countries that have uranium mines or an old research reactor," Swedish nonproliferation researcher Johan Bergenas said.

He and others said that African nations have more pressing concerns than Western worries about the spread of nuclear materials.

"We lack capacity to follow all such requirements," Niger U.N. envoy Boubecar Boureima said. In following Security Council measures, he said, "we deal with economic matters, peacebuilding in our region and other matters of interest to us."

He added: "We have uranium but we have no intention to go the wrong way" (Charles Hanley, Associated Press/Los Angeles Times, April 3).