Nuclear ‘club’ to plan control of technology

Press, 21 September 1977, Page 9

Nuclear ‘club’ to plan control of technology

tNZPA-Reuter London Senior Government officials from 15 nations with highly-developed nuclear industries will meet in London today to thrash out details of safeguards which they hope will prevent this knowledge being used by others for military purposes. The outcome of their meeting in what has been dubbed the “Suppliers’ Club” is likely to decide whether or not the United States-pro-posed “international fuelcycle evaluation programme” will begin this year.

Suppliers’ Club, meetings are top-secret, and even the existence of the group was not officially admitted until its work was well under way.

The London conference of suppliers of nuclear material and technology for peaceful purposes, as it is officially known, began meeting three years ago, with membership limited to the United States, the Soviet Union, Britain, France, Canada, West Germany, and Japan.

Last year it was joined first by Sweden, Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy, and East Germany, and later by Czechoslovakia, Poland, and Switzerland.

Now, according to Western sources, that looks like being the membership until guidelines for international nuclear-technology deals can be prepared. Australia has been invited to take part in the evaluation, and while in London last June the Australian Prime Minister (Mr Malcolm Fraser) said it had also been suggested by the British Prime Minister (Mr James Callaghan) that Australia should be a member of the Suppliers’ Club.

I One official said that though Australia would be a logical member because of its huge uranium reserves and its potential as a customer for refinement and enrichment technology, no invitation to join this most select of nuclear bodies was likely yet. So far the club — which is boycotted by China — is believed to have agreed that the first consideration in any sale of nuclear technology to another country must be the 1968 Non-proli-feration Treaty, and any prospective customer must have concluded a safeguards agreement, preferably involving the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna. There would have to be an assurance that whatever is exported would not be used to manufacture nuclear explosives for any purpose, and security against theft or sabotage would have to be provided. The idea may be brought in to verify the use to which exported nuclear material and equipment is being put. If the equipment or material is re-exported, then the new purchaser would be required to give the same assurances as tne original customer.

Informed sources say the question of nuclear fuelreprocessing is one on which details have still to be worked out, but it is understood that the guidelines are pretty near completion and could be made public shortly after the meeting.

Political observers in London believe President Carter’s suggested fuel-cycle evaluation programme is not likely to begin until the Suppliers’ Club completes its work.