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Working Group 2
Report The working group discussed
the Nuclear Proliferation Treaty (NPT) 2005 Review Conference and
its consequences on the future of the treaty, challenges faced by
the treaty and possible ways to move forward, regional problems of
nuclear proliferation, risks of nuclear terrorism, the need for further
progress in nuclear disarmament, outer space security issues, and
the situation regarding chemical and biological weapons conventions.
The working group was composed of 33 members with background in science
and diplomacy from nineteen different countries. Below is brief description
of the points discussed. NPT 2005
Review Conference There was a deep and widely shared concern about the failure of the NPT 2005 Review Conference to achieve results in strengthening the implementation of compliance with the treaty. Although the views about the specific causes and measures to be taken were some what different. Many participants felt that the five nuclear weapon states parties fall short of fulfilling their commitments to nuclear disarmament and arms control as expressed by the final document of 2000 Revcon (13 steps). At the same time there was a general feeling that the upcoming September UN summit in New York offered an opportunity for the world leaders to address explicitly the issues of nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation. Future
Course of Action to Strengthen the NPT
Other proposals were to
reach an agreement on the no-first use of nuclear weapon, address
the problem of tactical nuclear weapons, to prohibit the development
of new nuclear weapons, the examination, for example, by like minded
states, of the legal, political and technical requirements for negotiations
leading to a nuclear weapons free world. It was further proposed that
the introduction of legal dispute settlement body to address issues
of compliance with Article VI of the NPT would help in breaking the
deadlock on the issue of disarmament. Article
IV and Peaceful Use of Nuclear Technology The group also discussed
issues related to Article-IV (peaceful uses of nuclear technology).
Importance to explore multilateral options for improved control over
sensitive parts of the nuclear fuel cycle was stressed, along with
the need to ensure the right of NPT state parties to develop nuclear
technology for peaceful purposes and to have guaranteed supply of
nuclear fuel. Based on the argument
that it is not possible to eliminate the possibility of nuclear proliferation
from a nuclear energy fuel cycle, it was suggested that the use of
nuclear energy should be banned in a phased manner. Renewable energy
sources were suggested as an alternative which are cheap and environmentally
friendly. There was strong reservation from some members on the proposal
to ban the use of nuclear energy. However, it was decided that alternative
sources of energy should be explored. Regional
Nuclear Situations In 1998 there was a major
setback to the NPT regime when both India and Pakistan conducted nuclear
weapon tests; it was proposed to study ways and means to bring them
into the nonproliferation regime. Nuclear
Terrorism In the context of discussion
on nuclear terrorism it was emphasized that there is urgent need to
secure the existing stockpiles of the nuclear material and the elimination
of such material as soon as possible. It was suggested that technically
it is possible for a terrorist group having access to sufficient quantity
of Highly Enriched Uranium (HEU) to manufacture a primitive nuclear
explosive device to destroy a large part of a city, killing many people.
It is important to note that this primitive nuclear explosive device
is much easy to manufacture in comparison to a nuclear weapon developed
by nuclear states for military use. Some steps have been taken to
improve the accounting and physical security of the nuclear material
through cooperative arrangements. Another important development in
this regard is the 1993 "HEU deal" between US and Russia
to down-blend the surplus stockpiles of HEU of Russia to Low Enriched
Uranium (LEU) to sale it to the United States Enrichment Corporation
(USEC) but the progress in this is too slow. Outer Space
Security It was pointed out that
there is no justification for deployment of weapons and weapon systems
in space, in particular as it would lead to arms race in space. Keeping
in view the existing efforts to develop space-based weapons including
the readiness of deployment of a 'test bed" system by the United
States, following steps were recommended:
Chemical
and Biological Weapons Conventions The group received a detailed
report on the status of the implementation of the conventions prohibiting
respectively chemical and biological weapons. It was emphasized that
efforts to achieve universality of the two conventions and to improve
situation regarding their respective national implementation measures
should be intensified. |