| The
recent terrorist attacks in New York City, Washington,
DC and Pennsylvania have intensified focus on global
nuclear safety standards and the threat of nuclear
proliferation.
Senior
government officials from the International Atomic
Energy Agency's (IAEA) 132-member states convened
in Vienna to discuss nuclear safety and other issues
related to atomic energy. The 45th regular session
of the General Conference opened on September 17
and will conclude on September 21.
The IAEA has an extensive mandate that
ranges from global nuclear safety standards
to nuclear technology transfers.
"The one country that linked the
IAEA's role most closely with what has
happened is the United States," said
Melissa Fleming, spokesperson for the
IAEA. "Other countries have condemned
the attacks, but they haven't made the
same link. Of course in the corridors
we've heard delegates talking about what
the agency can and should do in the future."
Concerns about the safety of nuclear
materials have mounted in the past decade,
especially following the Gulf War and
the collapse of the Soviet Union. Political
and economic instability in the former
Soviet Union, especially in Russia, feeds
the global concern about the possibilities
of terrorist groups or rogue states gaining
access to weapons-grade nuclear materials.
"In Russia there is an excess of
(nuclear) materials as a result of the
Cold War," said Fleming. "That's
why the United States has put in so much
money and effort to provide Russian nuclear
scientists with useful work to prevent
proliferation."
A system
of 'safeguards agreements' allows the
IAEA to conduct inspections
of declared nuclear materials in member
countri‹}?‹‘‡s
that in 20“ ?lone, it carried
out nearly 2500 safeguards inspections.
More than $80 million, which represents
30 percent of the agency's annual budget,
is spent on conducting safety inspections.
There is a move within the agency to
extend the safeguards system through
more comprehensive agreements, called
'additional protocols.' These protocols
would essentially allow the IAEA to go
into member countries that are signatories
to the agreement, in order to inspect
all nuclear materials, declared or not.
In his
opening address, Director General Mohamed
ElBaradei said that the purpose
of the protocols "is to strengthen
the IAEA's verification ability, in particular
to detect undeclared nuclear material
and activities."
Unfortunately these inspections cannot
take place without the agreement of member
countries--as witnessed by the failed
inspections in Iraq in 1998. To date,
Pakistan, India and Israel, all either
declared or suspected nuclear states
have not signed onto the 'additional
protocols.' Iraq, which is still a member
of the IAEA, has not upheld the safeguard
agreement and North Korea, which declared
its nuclear program in 1992, has not
allowed inspectors into the country.
"There's always a big debate at
this conference about the fact that India
and Pakistan have no safeguards agreements
with the IAEA," said Fleming. "There
are a lot of similar concerns, but the
biggest ones are about countries that
may have clandestinely acquired nuclear
weapons that we know nothing about."
The United States, Russia, China, the
United Kingdom and France, the five members
of the Security Council and the original
declared nuclear states, are not bound
by the safeguard obligations.
The IAEA does not only focus on safety
issues. A large part of the budget is
directed toward nuclear technology transfers.
The IAEA has worked on projects involving
nuclear applications in many developing
countries.
"In Ethiopia we provided the first
and only radio-therapy machine to treat
cancer, along with training and expertise," said
Fleming. "We developed isotope hydrology
which identifies clean drinking water--a
very useful technology in countries like
Bangladesh where much of the drinking
water is contaminated."
The agency is also dedicated to ensuring
safety standards for nuclear plants,
including setting standards for waste
disposal and providing expertise on construction
and management.
In a
statement issued to the conference,
US President George Bush urged the member
states to "advance the role of the
IAEA in securing international peace
and well being."
"The IAEA is central to the world's
efforts to prevent the proliferation
of nuclear weapons," he added. There
is little the agency can do, however,
without access to countries that might
contribute to terrorist organizations.
|
