DIVERSION OF NUCLEAR FUEL FOR ARMS MAY GO UNDETECTED U.S. ADMITS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP86T00303R000500700034-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: January 4, 2017
• Document Release Date: April 10, 2008
• Sequence Number: 34
• Publication Date: December 3, 1981
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Approved For Release 2008/04/10: CIA-RDP86T00303R000500700034-5
Diversion of nuclear fuel for-arm
may go undetected, U.S. admits
By Robert Ruby
Sun Staff Correspondent
Washington-The State Department
acknowledged yesterday that internation-
al safeguards may fail to detect the diver-
clear weapons. In response, a member of
the Senate has demanded a ban on nuclear
exports until safeguards are improved.
the Senate Foreign Relations Committee,
said he agreed with a new study's careful-
rent techniques the U.N. agency's goal of
detecting military use of nuclear fuels is
"not generally attainable."
Mr. Kennedy is U.S. ambassador to the
agency, which from its headquarters in Vi-
guards, conducting inspections and check-
ing accounts to detect the diversion of plu-
tonium and enriched uranium for military
use.
exports of nuclear technology and
als, "at least until it is confident
ed."
THURSDAY MORNING3 DECEMBER 1981
teri-
tdi-
Victor Gi lirnsk y, an NRC commissioner,
agency, said the commission is still recon-
sidering its policies. He said he favors
cerned safeguards in Pakistan, the Ameri-
can ally which is widely believed to be
developing a bomb with technology ac-
quired through dummy corporations buy-
ing from American and European firms.
The Senate has passed legislation, and
the House is considering similiar mea-
sures, to cut off $3.2 Killion in promised
military aid if the country explodes a nu-
clear device.
Tan unusual message to their board of
governors, IAEA officials recently warned
that they soon may be unable to account
for all of Pakistan's nuclear material be-
cause the country now can fabricate its
own reactor fuel.
Senator Alan Cranston (D, Calif.) said
the opening of the fuel fabrication plant
meant Pakistan had cleared the final tech.
nological hurdle in its weapons program.
Within the last five years, Pakistan is
believed to have built small enrichment
and reprocessing plants, the complex fat-
la tioney no t(
Con= abot "Lum. 0110
Ham In order to nrotect me 11
lice but i
rent INIZA eguards are unreliable. The
agency will be able to detect a military di-
version in Pakistan, Mr. Kennedy said-
but only r new IAEA camom are in-
stalled and a er tnsnectors aten no the
freau visits -
e s weakness is that, in agency's international role, committee
it cannot enforce the standards chairman Charles H. Percy (R, III.) said
practice
,
agreed upon by its members," Mr. Gilin- current nonproliferation efforts depend on
straints imposed by member states on in- hopes that IAEA safeguards deter nations
spections and its senior officials tend to from acquiring nuclear weapons, that a
be overly cautious about facing important country is unlikely to make a bomb if
issues." there is a high risk the work will be dis-
silence about the IAEA, which Western cult to make inspections rigorous because
nations generally regard as essential to it has been unable to make them political-
prevent nuclear proliferation. Long-time ly acceptable to nations protective of their
sa a uar since t e agency was oun ed show that the agency never has been able
to determine the worldwide inventory of
i mocratic senators used the occasion plutonium, and thus faces enormous rob-
to criticize the administration's overall lems determining whether any is missing.
nonproliferation policy as too permissive Of the 86 tons of plutonium the agency
about worldwide sales of nuclear tech- says it has responsibility for, the measure-
nology. The Reagan administration has ment of 52 tons, enough for about 6.000
said it wants to return to the United States combs, 13i "estimated roughly."
to being a "reliable supplier" of nuclear Other witnesses, including two former
know-how. [AEA inspectors, outlined what they said
The administration also is considering were other shortcomings in the agency,
asking Congress to take export licensing only some of which might be fixed with
away from the NRC, which is considered money or time.
too independent of White House desires, They include an acknowledged lack of
and give it to the State Department. trained technicians, tight restrictions on
Many of the coromittee'a m,aatinna rnn_ where and when inspectors can travel and
1981 Pg. 1
Senator Would Halt
Nuclear Exports;
Cites Weapons Risk
Aamdai.d Preea
"'Sen. Gary Hart (D-Colo.) yesterday used
a us ensi of-nu-
c ar materials until a U.S. commission is
Agency can preven
ala9,
,H
;ns.
ade the at a'iiearing at
the IAEA safe-
ced
tics den
ineffective and Reagan admiais-
ficials celled the agency basically
guards
we but needing improvement.
Hart called for the suspension of exjpdrta
because of a letter by the Nuclear Regula-
tdry Commission expressing concern that
"the IAEA safeguards system would not de.
`teet a diversion" of nuclear materials.
Sen. Alan
4ritics ice t t ie agency
retame an not rev ace with
e other m r on system,
b that it needs extended improvement.
n ersecre y of State Richard T. Ken-
nedy told the committee he agreed with the
critics' concerns, but said the administration
strongly supports the IAEA and intends to
help the agency overcome its weaknesses,
including a shortage of manpower.
Kennedy said the IAEA not only guards
against misuse of nuclear materials but
searches for illegal weapons development,
obtains treaty commitments against weapons
development, and works for "restraint" in
supplying sensitive nuclear materials and
technology to countries that seek them.
extreme reluctance at the agency's top
'levels to find anything amiss.
Many of the problems were also noted
in ti'e study partially endorsed by Mr.
Kennedy and prepared for the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission.
Both Mr. Gilinsky and Paul Leventhal,
head of the Nuclear Club, Inc., a private
organization, urged the IAEA to make
more of its findings public. Virtually all
the agency's information is classified,
both in Vienna and Washington.
Approved For Release 2008/04/10: CIA-RDP86T00303R000500700034-5
BALTIMORE SUN 3 December 1981 Pg.
STAT
STAT
 Approved For Release 2008/04/10: CIA-RDP86T00303R000500700034-5
Th.i(SDAY MORNING, 3 DECEMBER 1
BALTIMORE SUN 3 December 1981 Pg.4
US, is just as much a threat
as Soviet, says Bonn lawmaker
Washington (Reuter)-A leader of the
European peace movement yesterday
called for an end to the assumption that
only the Soviet Union is a potential ag-
gressor, saying it was no more expansion-
ist or imperialistic than the United States.
Karl-Heinz Hansen, a member of the
West German Parliament, spoke at a
press conference given by four of the
movement's leaders at the invitation of an
American peace group" A `Citizehls Ofg5hi= ' ' ' ' ` "
zation for a Sane World, also known as
SANE.
"The Soviet Union is no more expan-
sionist, no more imperialistic in our eyes,
than the United States," he said.
Mr. Hansen was recently expelled from
the ruling Social Democratic Party for op-
posing the North Atlantic Treaty Organi-
zation's. planned deployment of Pershing
lI missiles in West Germany.
Another speaker, Gert Bastian, a for-
mer major general who resigned from the
West German Army last year in protest
against the NATO plan, said the 572 Per-
shing II and cruise missiles planned for
Western Europe beginning in 1983 were
unnecessary.
The speakers, who also included British
MP Jo Richardson and Petra Kelly, leader
of West Germany's antiwar ecological
Green Party, criticized President Rea-
gan's recent proposal to scrap the new
NATO missiles if the Soviet Union disman-
tles its SS-20s and older SS-4 and SS-5s.
They said U.S.-Soviet talks on theater
nuclear forces in Europe. which opened in
Geneva Monday, should aim for a real
"zero option"-ridding Europe of all nu-
clear weapons.
WASHINGTON POST
3 December 1981
Pg.25
WASHINGTON POST
3 DEC 81 Pg. 31
U.S. Protests to Soviets
In Alleged Spy Plotting
Reuter
WEST BERLIN, Dec. 2 -The
U.S. military government in West
Berlin said today it had protested to
the Soviet Union about an alleged
spy affair involving a prominent So-
viet diplomat in East Berlin.
The diplomat, a first secretary at
the Soviet Embassy to East Ger-
many, who was not named, was ar-
rested by West Berlin security forces
yesterday along with three members
of the Soviet armed forces and an
East German, a U.S. spokesman
said.
The four Soviet citizens were
handed over to their East Berlin em-
bassy several hours after their arrest,
in accordance with the four-power
agreements on Berlin, he said. But
the East German was presented to
West Berlin police to face espionage
charges. The five were apparently
caught in a trap laid by the U.S. au-
thorities and the security forces.
They were arrested as they met a
U.S. soldier, reportedly there with
the knowledge of his superiors, in
what West Berlin security forces
said was an apparent attempt to ob-
tain secret information. There was
no immediate comment from the
Soviet Embassy.
The Federal Register
Here's a little insight into one direction the Navy and Marine
Corps want to go in the Reagan administration multibillion-dollar
defense buildup-air-cushioned, amphibious landing craft, as the new
way to "hit the beach."
The Navy has developed and tested two prototypes for the Land-
ing Craft Air Cushion (LCAC) program and now plans to produce six
of them.
But the Navy already is considering where to put them. What it
has in mind, according to the Nov. 17 Federal Register (page 56493),
is two fleets of 54 landing vehicles, one fleet based on each U.S. coast.
The Navy already has studied 15 military installations with the
necessary prerequisites-ocean access, support facilities, 50 acres of
potentially available land and "a mission not obviously incompatible
with LCAC operations." The prime candidates have been narrowed to
Navy bases at Camp Pendleton and Little Creek in Virginia and the
Marine Corps base at. Camp Pendleton, Calif.
PHILADELPHIA
INQUIRER
3 December 1981
Pg.3
3 DEC 81 Pg 22
S. African Action Prompts
Angry Statement by U.S.
Associated Press
South Africa's release today of 39
men allegedly involved in hijackin,
an Indian airliner from the Sey-
chelles brought an angry reaction
from American officials, and there
was a suggestion from the State De-
partment of possible sanctions
against South Africa as a result.
The State Department had issued
a statement Saturday strongly con-
demning both the coup and the hi-
jacking and asking for "prompt and
severe punishment" for those in-
volved.
Sue Pittman, a State Department
spokesman, today reflected the U S.
disappointment in the action by not-
ing South Africa's participation in
The Hague convention against hi-
jacking.
The State Department called at-
tention an agreement by the United
States and six other major industrial
nations at the Bonn Economic Sum-
mit in 1978 to cease all slights to a
country that refuses to extradite or
prosecute persons who have hijacked
an aircraft.
The Warsaw Pact pledges to steer
clear of a nuclear strike.
The Soviet Union and its six East-
ern European allies also offered to
dissolve the Warsaw Pact in return
for the simultaneous dismantling of
NATO. The group blamed the West
for a "further deterioration in the
international climate" and a "groK
ing danger of war." Warsaw )'a, I
countries, their f:,reign ministers
said in a communique yesterday
ending a two-day meeting in 1iucha-
rest, Romania, "did not and will not
intend to create the first nuclear
strike potential." Soviet Forcu;n
Minister Andrei A. Gromyko, senior
diplomat at the meeting, was rennri
ed by Bucharest Radio to be staying
on after the session for a "friendly
visit" whose purpose was not dis
closed.
Now the Navy must develop an environmental impact statement
for those areas, in part because the air-cushioned craft. are very
noisy..-or at least their predecessors were when they were used in
Vietnam.
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