LONDON – The International Atomic Energy Agency will report that
Egypt failed to report nuclear tests required under the Nuclear
Non-Proliferation Treaty.
The IAEA has drafted a report that determined that Egypt repeatedly
failed to report nuclear materials and activities over the last 15 years,
agency sources said. The sources said that the agency said in the report
that this was a "matter of concern," but did not recommend sanctions.
On Jan. 27, Egypt acknowledged that it conducted research experiments
without informing the agency, Middle East Newsline reported. The experiments were conducted in an Egyptian
Inshass Center, a reprocessing laboratory 35 kilometers northeast of Cairo.
The sources said the agency report on Egypt would be submitted to the
board of governors on Feb. 28. The board would decide whether to pursue
violations of the NPT to the United Nations Security Council.
The report was completed but not released after months of inspections by
the agency in Egypt, the sources said. They said the IAEA failed to find
evidence of an Egyptian nuclear weapons program.
But the report suggested that Egypt had produced plutonium. The agency
said it found traces of plutonium in so-called hot cells, but did not rule
out that this was the result of research.
"There is no willingness by anybody to pursue the issue to the Security
Council," an agency source said. "Even the United States would rather let
Egypt off with a warning, rather with any penalty."
The focus of the board of governors meeting was expected to be Iran,
said to have continued elements of its uranium enrichment program. South
Korea has also been cited as conducting nuclear experiments concealed from
the IAEA.
The report said the Egyptian nuclear experiments were meant to produce
nuclear metal. The Egyptians were also reported to have taken the first
steps toward the production of plutonium and enriched uranium.
Egypt, however, has not completed uranium enrichment, the report said.
The report said Inshass contains two research reactors procured from
France more than 20 years ago. The so-called "hot laboratories" enabled the
treatment of spent fuel and plutonium separation.
"Research experiments and activities, most of which took place in the
distant past are consistent with the NPT," the Egyptian embassy said in a
statement.
