Bush, El Baradei and Annan have hinted at NPT reform
George Bush, Mohamed El Baradei and Kofi Annan have all suggested recently that there might be a case for reforming the current non-proliferation treaty.
On 11 February 2004, President Bush called on members of the 40-country Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) to:
“refuse to sell enrichment and reprocessing equipment and technologies to any state that does not already possess full-scale, functioning enrichment and reprocessing plants”, arguing that “we need to set a new global norm, which says regardless of Article IV of the NPT, it is not OK that weapons-usable nuclear material, and access to that, spreads to new States”.
Agreeing in part, ElBaradei argued that NPT needs ought to be “re-evaluated”. Concerned at the prospect of many countries mastering the enrichment process, he advocated a system in which enrichment would be undertaken by an international consortium of countries, with
“companies under appropriate control providing the fuel and then taking back the spent fuel under international supervision so you get electricity without the risk associated with the technology”.
Expressing dissatisfaction with the existing regime, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan commented:
“While the access of non-nuclear weapon States to the benefits of nuclear technology should not be curtailed, we should focus on creating incentives for States to voluntarily forego the development of domestic uranium enrichment and plutonium separation capacities, while guaranteeing their supply of the fuel necessary to develop peaceful uses”.