Nuclear fuel expansion raises proliferation fear

A report from a State Department advisory panel warns of proliferation threats as global nuclear energy generation expands, and it recommends that the United States embrace the trend to ensure that fuel-supplying nations adopt safeguards to manage the risks.

Critics of the report say the expansion of nuclear power is not inevitable and should be resisted.

A task force of the International Security Advisory Board chaired by former Pentagon and World Bank official Paul Wolfowitz produced the report, titled “Proliferation Implications of the Global Expansion of Civil Nuclear Power,” in response to a request from Robert Joseph, undersecretary of state for arms control and international security.

C. Paul Robinson, an arms control negotiator in the Reagan and first Bush administrations, was the primary author of the report. It was produced in two months earlier this year, and consists of 10 pages plus another 20 pages of introductory and appendix material.

The report said global demand for energy is likely to double by 2030.

“Nuclear energy is likely to be in great demand because of the large price increases for oil and natural gas and the fact that nuclear power produces no carbon emissions,” according to the report.

Mr. Robinson said the expansion of civil nuclear energy generation is inevitable and already under way.

“You just have to read the newspapers to see that this is the case,” he told United Press International in an interview.

The report cites a list prepared by the State Department in 2007 of several countries planning to join the nuclear power club, or “giving serious consideration” to it, within the next 10 years.

Nations considering nuclear power include the former Soviet republics of Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan, Muslim giants Indonesia, Egypt and Turkey, Poland and the three Baltic states.

Fifteen other nations including Algeria, Ghana, Libya, Malaysia, Syria, Venezuela and Yemen have “longer term plans or studies under way,” according to the State Department list.

While wealthier countries “can to try to buy their way out” of the looming energy crunch, “the Third World does not have that option,” the report said. “There has proved to be no silver bullet in renewable or other alternative energy sources.”

The report said 435 nuclear reactors are operating around the world, 28 more are under construction and an additional 222 are planned.

“It´s a pretty depressing prospect,” Mr. Robinson said.

One of the key concerns is that the two principal ways of making nuclear fuel - enriching uranium and reprocessing used reactor fuel into plutonium - can be used to make weapons-grade material for nuclear bombs.

Story Continues →