US and IAEA lagging on nuclear proliferators

The Terrorism, Nonproliferation and Trade Subcommittee held a hearing this afternoon on the future of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), and global nuclear energy as a whole. The treaty, which aims to eliminate the spread of nuclear weapons, has gained increasing attention in light of North Korea’s test of a nuclear weapon and Iran’s nuclear program.

Pierre Goldschmidt, Senior Associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace said that examples of non-compliance that have been identified by the Board of Governors within the International Atomic Energy Association (IAEA) need to be acknowledged immediately. In particular, Goldschmidt pointed to North Korea and Egypt as gross violators of the agency’s regulations.

Professor Orde Kitrie of the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State said that the US needs to enforce stricter sanctions against nations who violate international nuclear agreements. He also said that any nation found to be in violation of these rules should be cut off from US exports indefinitely.

Jack Spencer, Research Fellow in the Thomas Roe Institute for Economic Policy Studies at the Heritage Foundation suggested that the US create an international fuel supply program to reduce international desire for a nuclear program to provide necessary power. He believes this program would reduce some of the workload for the IAEA, allowing the organization to focus on more dangerous proliferators.