Tuesday, May 03, 2005
Article IV loophole
The Bush administration's concern during this review of the Nuclear Nonprofilferation Treaty is what has been come to be called the article IV loophole. They are absolutely right it is a large hole that allow any nation to move right to the edge of nuclear weapons capability without breaking the treaty. This needs to be fixed.
Jax
North Korea, which declared its withdrawal from the treaty in 2003 and claims to have built nuclear bombs, said this weekend it was giving up negotiating over its weapons program with a George W. Bush-led United States. It was another blow to the suspended six-party talks aimed at bringing Pyongyang back into the NPT.
Iran, meanwhile, said it will probably restart operations this week related to its disputed uranium enrichment program, which Washington contends is a cover for nuclear weapons plans.
The "nuclear fuel cycle" is key to suspicions about Iran's intentions. The NPT's Article IV guarantees nonweapons states the right to peaceful nuclear technology, including uranium enrichment equipment to produce fuel for nuclear power plants. But that same technology, with further enrichment, can produce material for nuclear bombs.
Annan said states such as Iran "must not insist" on obtaining such sensitive technology domestically, but should have international access to nuclear fuel.
Meanwhile, "a first step would be to expedite agreement to create incentives for states to voluntarily forgo the development of fuel-cycle facilities," the U.N. chief said.
In fact, the Tehran government, which denies it plans to convert uranium for weapons, is in off-and-on talks with European negotiators about shutting down its enrichment operations in return for economic incentives.
In addition, Mohamad ElBaradei, head of the U.N. nuclear agency, who also was addressing the conference opening, has proposed putting nuclear fuel production under multilateral control, by regional or international bodies.
This "Article IV loophole" was expected to be a major issue before the NPT conference, but many other governments also complain the United States and other big powers are moving too slowly toward scrapping their nuclear arms under the NPT. (Link)
