CIAO DATE: 09/2011
June 2011
Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard University
Moderate the rhetoric on limiting E&R transfers in large international fora and stress the Article IV rights of NPT parties and assistance to developing countries. Given the sharp divisions in the global community on this issue, a broad international consensus that would be universally credible to NPT parties, national parliaments, and private industry is most likely not an achievable goal. The most pragmatic strategy would be to tone down the rhetoric, emphasize the rights of NPT parties to the peaceful uses of nuclear energy as long as they are in compliance with their nonproliferation objectives, and increase assistance to developing countries in building the infrastructure for peaceful nuclear programs that do not necessarily require them to build their own E&R facilities. In other words, it makes more sense to offer attractive incentives and opportunities as an alternative to national enrichment and reprocessing than to propose arrangements that openly seek to deny what countries consider their sovereign rights.
Resource link: Recommendations for Limiting Transfers of Enrichment and Reprocessing Technologies [PDF] - 422K