The United Nations agency tasked with limitation nuclear propagation may have unwittingly helped Pakistan expand its atomic weapons program because of weak interior oversight, according to documents and interviews with three previous UN scientists. The UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency offer financial and technical aid to develop Pakistan’s uranium mines and develop plutonium-producing reactors still after the country tested a nuclear weapon in 1998 in insolence of a non- proliferation treaty, IAEA documents show.
While the IAEA aid was future for civilian nuclear power, Pakistan use uranium from the mines for weapons, said three former agency scientists with straight knowledge of the situation who asked not to be recognized because they are prohibited from commenting by privacy agreement with the IAEA. Pakistan’s two atomic energy plants sprint on fuel from China and uranium from Niger under IAEA safeguards, according to agreements with the Vienna-based agency.
“The uranium mining assistance show to have assist Pakistan in further its nuclear weapons program,” said Charles Ferguson, president of the Washington base Federation of American Scientists and a physicist who has consult for the U.S. State Department and the Energy Department. “What happen was a lack of effective oversight.” The IAEA’s collapse to avoid the use of its aid for prohibited military purpose raises questions about its capability to police the nuclear material that it helps countries manufacture.
While the IAEA aid was future for civilian nuclear power, Pakistan use uranium from the mines for weapons, said three former agency scientists with straight knowledge of the situation who asked not to be recognized because they are prohibited from commenting by privacy agreement with the IAEA. Pakistan’s two atomic energy plants sprint on fuel from China and uranium from Niger under IAEA safeguards, according to agreements with the Vienna-based agency.
“The uranium mining assistance show to have assist Pakistan in further its nuclear weapons program,” said Charles Ferguson, president of the Washington base Federation of American Scientists and a physicist who has consult for the U.S. State Department and the Energy Department. “What happen was a lack of effective oversight.” The IAEA’s collapse to avoid the use of its aid for prohibited military purpose raises questions about its capability to police the nuclear material that it helps countries manufacture.
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