U.S. eyes banning peaceful nuke use by NPT noncompliance states

Kyodo News (Japan) ^ | April 27, 2005

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The United States plans to propose banning the peaceful use of nuclear energy if a nation is confirmed to have violated the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in a bid to prevent nations such as Iran from watering down the NPT regime, it was learned Wednesday.

The United States also intends to call for new criteria to control the transfer of technology related to uranium enrichment and plutonium reprocessing, a senior U.S. administration official said, referring to an international NPT review conference in New York from next Monday.

The United States wants the proposed ban on the peaceful nuclear use to be included in a final document to be adopted at the conference, while deepening discussions on the new criteria toward reaching an agreement by the annual summit of the Group of Eight major nations in Gleneagles, Scotland, in July.

But uncertainty remains as nonnuclear states are likely to strongly oppose the U.S. proposals, which may lead to stripping them of the "inalienable right" provided under the NPT's Article 4 to "develop research, production and use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes without discrimination" in exchange for their commitments not to possess nuclear arms.

The U.S. proposals stem from growing concerns that the NPT regime could collapse due to Iran's alleged development of nuclear weapons behind its right to the peaceful use of nuclear energy.

Against this backdrop, Washington also wants to tighten control of peaceful nuclear use by establishing the new criteria.

The treaty's Article 4 will be the "important point" for the NPT review conference, the official said. "What we're saying is, if you're not in compliance with your (International Atomic Energy Agency) safeguards agreement in Article 3, and Article 2 on nonproliferation, then you should be prohibited from access to nuclear suppliers."

As for uranium enrichment and plutonium reprocessing, the official said the United States is already consulting with European and other supplier nations about new criteria to determine whether to transfer related technology to third nations, the official said.

The proposed criteria include tracking records and assessing the economic rationale for nations seeking the technology to recycle nuclear fuel by themselves for energy purposes.