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US Security Leaders Call for Urgent Action Against Nuclear Dangers
IAEA Role Integral to "A World Free of Nuclear Weapons"
Staff Report
5 January 2007
- Story Resources
- Wall Street Journal Op-Ed [Subscription Required]
- News Reports
- George Schultz, Hoover Institution
- IAEA & the NPT
- Multilateral Nuclear Fuel Cycles
Four former senior officials in the United States government call for urgent and concerted efforts against the world´s nuclear dangers, in an essay published in the Wall Street Journal, 3 January 2006. The authors are former Secretary of State George P. Shultz, former Defense Secretary William Perry, former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, and former Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Sam Nunn. See Story Resources for more information.
The authors point out that the world´s Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) - which names the IAEA as the nuclear inspectorate - envisioned the end of all nuclear weapons. "It provides (a) that states that did not possess nuclear weapons as of 1967 agree not to obtain them, and (b) that states that do possess them agree to divest themselves of these weapons over time..." They note, however, that "non-nuclear weapon states have grown increasingly skeptical of the sincerity of the nuclear powers."
"Strong non-proliferation efforts are under way," they write. "The Cooperative Threat Reduction program, the Global Threat Reduction Initiative, the Proliferation Security Initiative and the Additional Protocols are innovative approaches that provide powerful new tools for detecting activities that violate the NPT and endanger world security. They deserve full implementation. The negotiations on proliferation of nuclear weapons by North Korea and Iran, involving all the permanent members of the Security Council plus Germany and Japan, are crucially important. They must be energetically pursued."
The leaders stressed that none of these steps are adequate for the danger the world faces. Other efforts are needed, they said.
"The program on which agreements should be sought would constitute a series of agreed and urgent steps that would lay the groundwork for a world free of the nuclear threat. Steps would include:
- Changing the Cold War posture of deployed nuclear weapons to increase warning time and thereby reduce the danger of an accidental or unauthorized use of a nuclear weapon.
- Continuing to reduce substantially the size of nuclear forces in all states that possess them.
- Eliminating short-range nuclear weapons designed to be forward-deployed.
- Initiating a bipartisan process with the Senate, including understandings to increase confidence and provide for periodic review, to achieve ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, taking advantage of recent technical advances, and working to secure ratification by other key states.
- Providing the highest possible standards of security for all stocks of weapons, weapons-usable plutonium, and highly enriched uranium everywhere in the world.
- Getting control of the uranium enrichment process, combined with the guarantee that uranium for nuclear power reactors could be obtained at a reasonable price, first from the Nuclear Suppliers Group and then from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) or other controlled international reserves. It will also be necessary to deal with proliferation issues presented by spent fuel from reactors producing electricity.
- Halting the production of fissile material for weapons globally; phasing out the use of highly enriched uranium in civil commerce and removing weapons-usable uranium from research facilities around the world and rendering the materials safe.
- Redoubling our efforts to resolve regional confrontations and conflicts that give rise to new nuclear powers.
Achieving the goal of a world free of nuclear weapons will also require effective measures to impede or counter any nuclear-related conduct that is potentially threatening to the security of any state or peoples."