LONDON — The International Atomic Energy Agency has urged the
removal of nuclear fuel production from individual states in a move that
could affect Iran's program.
"A joint nuclear facility with multinational staff puts all participants
under a greater scrutiny from peers and partners, a fact that strengthens
non-proliferation and security," IAEA deputy director Bruno Pellaud said.
Pellaud told a briefing in Vienna on Tuesday that the proposed
multilateral groups would ensure the supply of fuel to civilian nuclear
power programs, Middle East Newsline reported.
The IAEA report said nuclear fuel production should be the
responsibility of a multilateral regime, which has already been launched in
Europe. The report said each region should have a multilateral group to
ensure that nuclear fuel would not be transferred to countries that sought
to develop nuclear weapons.
Pellaud said the 103-page report sought to issue recommendations
ahead of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty review scheduled for May 2005
in New York. More than 180 countries, including Iran, are signatories to the
NPT.
The agency has determined that up to 40 countries possessed nuclear
weapons capabilities. Officials said these countries have nuclear energy and
research programs and capability to complete the nuclear cycle, which would
allow them to assemble nuclear weapons within months.
"The decades-long nuclear non-proliferation effort is under threat," the
report said, "from regional arms races; from actions by non-nuclear weapon
states that have been found to be in fundamental breach of, or in
non-compliance with their safeguards agreement, and which have not taken
full corrective measures; from the incomplete manner in which export
controls required by the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons
have been applied; from burgeoning and alarmingly well-organized nuclear
supply networks; and from the increasing risk of acquisition of nuclear or
other radioactive materials by terrorist and other non-state entities."
The IAEA report, which did not discuss the Iranian nuclear program, said
the international community must increase safeguards on nuclear fuel
shipments. The agency recommended the conversion of uranium enrichment
plants into facilities controlled by multilateral nuclear groups. Argentina,
Brazil, Chile and Japan already have uranium enrichment facilities.
"It is difficult to play games if you have multinationals at a site,"
Pellaud said.
The report outlined five ways to bolster controls over nuclear fuel
enrichment, reprocessing, spent fuel repositories and spent fuel storage.
They included transparent and long-term supply agreements; development of
international supply guarantees with IAEA participation; voluntary
conversion of existing facilities to multilateral nuclear approaches;
creation of regional multilateral nuclear groups and approaches for such
facilities as uranium enrichment, fuel reprocessing, disposal and storage of
spent fuel; and development of a nuclear fuel cycle with stronger
multilateral arrangements.
"The principal proliferation concern associated with reprocessing plants
is the capacity they provide a would-be proliferator to separate plutonium
from spent fuel for a weapons program," the report said. "The security
concern results from the possible presence at reprocessing plants --
depending on specific reprocessing cycles -- of separated plutonium that
could be diverted or misused."
The report -- drafted by the so-called Experts Group, which contains
representatives from 26 countries -- called for additional restrictions on
the export of nuclear technology. The agency did not call for a moratorium
on nuclear fuel cycle projects, a proposal relayed by IAEA director-general
Mohammed El Baradei in October 2004. El Baradei commissioned the agency
study last June.
"The scenario of a further expansion of nuclear energy around the world
might call for the development of a nuclear fuel cycle with stronger
multilateral arrangements," Pellaud said.
