UN nuclear agency expands treaty (Agencies) Updated: 2005-07-09 08:33
An 89-nation conference on Friday approved a beefed-up treaty on protecting
enriched uranium and other dangerous nuclear substances — a move that the head
of the U.N.'s atomic watchdog agency said would help tie the hands of
terrorists.
The Convention of the Physical Protection of Nuclear Material originally
obligated the 112 countries that have accepted it to protect nuclear material
during international transport. The amended version — which still has to be
ratified by those countries — expands such protection to materials at nuclear
facilities, in domestic storage and during domestic transport or use.
 International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)
director general Mohamed
ElBaradei.[AFP/file] | The International Atomic Energy Agency said that under the toughened treaty,
countries will work more closely together to track down and recover stolen or
smuggled nuclear material and "mitigate any radiological consequences of
sabotage."
Conference approval is only the first step. The amended treaty enters into
force only after ratification by at least two-thirds of the 112 nations that
have signed up to it — a process expected to take years.
Still, IAEA director Mohamed ElBaradei called it an "important step towards
greater nuclear security by combating, preventing and ultimately punishing those
who would engage in nuclear theft, sabotage and even terrorism."
ElBaradei, whose Vienna-based agency acts as the U.N. nuclear
nonproliferation watchdog, said the agreement reached in the Austrian capital
over five days demonstrates "a global commitment to remedy weaknesses in our
nuclear security regime."
Agreement was reached just a day after the London bombings — a fresh reminder
of the world terrorist menace. The push to shield nuclear facilities first
gained urgency after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, amid new security concerns
and nightmare scenarios of fuel-laden jumbo jets smashing into atomic power
plants.
It also comes amid disturbing revelations of continuing attempts to steal
nuclear material, particularly in poorer countries with less developed security
measures.
In the former Soviet republic of Georgia, there have been four known
incidents of attempted uranium smuggling over the past three or four years, said
Soso Kakushadze, head of the nuclear and radiation safety department at
Georgia's Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources.
Speaking to The Associated Press in the Georgian capital Friday, Kakushadze
denied reports the uranium was weapons-grade, specifying that the material in
all four cases was not enriched highly enough to be used as a source of high
radiation in a "dirty bomb" or in the core of nuclear weapons.
While building a nuclear device is a complicated process, there are fears
terrorists could easily construct a dirty bomb, which uses simple conventional
explosives to spread radiation.
IAEA spokesman Mark Gwozdecky said Georgia had reported the latest incident
but declined to go into detail.
A diplomat close to the agency, however said the Georgian report available to
the agency was not clear on the level of enrichment. He asked for anonymity
because he is not authorized to speak on confidential agency matters to the
media.
Kakushadze said there was reason to believe that the material ended up in
Georgia from South Ossetia, a secessionist region that broke away in the 1990s.
The existing treaty was drawn up in Vienna and New York in 1980, long before
the threat of terrorist nuclear attacks had become a pressing fear.
Reflecting the fears that fueled the need for the amendments, the text — made
available in full to the AP — expresses deep concern at "the worldwide
escalation of acts of terrorism in all its forms and manifestations, and by the
threats posed by international terrorism and organized crime."
Though experts have long worried nuclear plants and materials could be
targeted by terrorists, creating new rules to protect them from such attacks has
taken time because the efforts cost money and require expertise some countries
don't have.
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