(448.4448) WISE-Amsterdam - A coalition of opponents, which includes Greenpeace, the Nuclear Control Institute, the conservative Centre for National Security Policy and Business Executives for National Security, is urging that the pact be rejected, or heavily amended, by Congress. The attack comes as a particular blow for Clinton -- now in the midst of a re-election campaign -- who has often claimed that stemming the spread of nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction is a foreign policy priority. "We have given the Europeans a carte blanche in this agreement to carry out what programmes they wish," Eldon Greenberg of the Washington-based Nuclear Control Institute said. The critics claim the accord, by weakening U.S. controls over foreign use of U.S.-origin nuclear materials, reflects an "unparalleled capitulation to the negotiating demands of a U.S. trading partner."
In Euratom, some three-quarters of all the plutonium now being separated and all the highly-enriched uranium now being used are derived from U.S.-supplied nuclear fuel. Opponents argued that the agreement -- which treats all of Europe as one entity -- opens the door to trafficking in bomb-related materials, particularly if former East bloc countries, where export controls are weakest, join Euratom. It also asserted that current Euratom members would now be free to build and operate new plants for reprocessing and use U.S-originated nuclear materials without U.S. consent, even if Washington had concerns about safeguards or security. The Natural Resources Defence Council said it is "not a rational security judgment" for Washington to give away its unilateral rights to control U.S.-origin nuclear materials at a time of increased threat. The U.S. Arms Control and Disarmanent Agency, which has major responsibility for advocating arms control within the Clinton adminstration, participated in negotiating the agreement and its director, John Holum, urged Clinton to approve it. The pact "meets all statuatory requirements ... and includes the best possible safeguards and controls," Holum wrote to Clinton in a September memo. He said Washington fended off other strong demands by European allies and stressed that the "long-term stability" of the allies' political systems offered strong assurances that they would use the U.S.-origin materials peacefully. But Ken Timmerman of the Middle East Data Project countered that such confidence is misplaced. He noted that France and Germany both had big roles in developing Iraq's nuclear weapons capability and that the United States and Europe are divided on other issues, including restraining trade with Iran.
Source: Reuter, 23 Feb. 1996
Contact: Nuclear Control Institute (NCI) 1000 Connecticut Av.NW. Suit 704. Washington DC 20036 USA Tel: 1-202-822.8444 Fax: 1-202-452.0802
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