US gave bomb grade uranium to 43 countries (Pakistan, Iran, Israel refusing to return it)

WASHINGTON : The U.S. has given weapons-grade uranium to 43 countries including Pakistan since the 1950s under the Atoms for Peace programme and is making little effort to get them back, a government department reported.

The Department of Energy said in a report that among the countries which have refused to return the material are Pakistan , Iran , Israel , Mexico , Jamaica and South Africa .

The reasons for declining vary. Some of the bomb-grade uranium is in use at research universities and institutions that do not want to give it up.

Jon Wolfsthal, who ran the recovery programme from 1995 to 1997, said one important reason why so little uranium has been returned is that "we are charging these countries $5,000 kilogram to get it back."

The year was 1953, and "the US" apparently did not give any "atomic materials" to ANY nation. The following is extracted from the "Atoms for Peace" speech, given by President Eisenhower before the UN.

The capability, already proved, is here today. Who can doubt that, if
the entire body of the world's scientists and engineers had adequate amounts of fissionable
material with which to test and develop their ideas, this capability would rapidly be
transformed into universal, efficient and economic usage?
...

I therefore make the following proposal.

The governments principally involved, to the extent permitted by elementary prudence,
should begin now and continue to make joint contributions from their stockpiles of normal
uranium and fissionable materials to an international atomic energy agency. We would
expect that such an agency would be set up under the aegis of the United Nations. The
ratios of contributions, the procedures and other details would properly be within the scope
of the "private conversations" I referred to earlier.

...
The atomic energy agency could be made responsible for the impounding, storage and
protection of the contributed fissionable and other materials. The ingenuity of our
scientists will provide special safe conditions under which such a bank of fissionable
material can be made essentially immune to surprise seizure.

The more important responsibility of this atomic energy agency would be to devise methods
whereby this fissionable material would be allocated to serve the peaceful pursuits of
mankind. Experts would be mobilized to apply atomic energy to the needs of agriculture,
medicine and other peaceful activities. A special purpose would be to provide abundant
electrical energy in the power-starved areas of the world.

http://www.iaea.org/About/history_speech.html

It appears that the "Uranium and fissionable materials" were to be given (By the US, and theoretically, by the USSR.) to the International Atomic Energy Agency. That agency (of the UN) doled out, and controlled, atomic materials to various countries.

This may have been naive, or even foolish, but it was NOT what was described in the Article. It seems likely that none of the other implications made are accurate either.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.