Black market in nuclear technology must be stopped: IAEA

The head of the United Nations nuclear watchdog agency has called for "urgent action" against nuclear proliferation black marketeers, warning that recent cases of covert trading were "just the tip of the iceberg".

The Director-General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Mohamed ElBaradei, told an international expert seminar in Vienna that the system in place to prevent underground trafficking was "not working". He said that the international community must close "serious gaps in controls" on exports of sensitive nuclear material and equipment.

Mr ElBaradei stressed that more resources were needed to follow through on examining a "chain of activity" in the nuclear black market and to make sure such cases are not repeated.

It was the second time in three days that the IAEA has sought to drawn attention to the illicit trading of nuclear technology. On Tuesday the agency issued a statement for a “vital” security upgrade to prevent nuclear technology from falling into the wrong hands through the "emerging global network of the sophisticated black market".

Mr ElBaradei also urged cutting the number of nuclear weapons from the current 30,000, and said an "inclusive, universal system of nuclear non-proliferation and nuclear disarmament" was the only way forward.

On the nuclear fuel cycle, Mr ElBaradei said it was time to limit the processing of weapon-usable material (separated plutonium and enriched uranium) in civilian nuclear programmes, as well as the production of new material through reprocessing and enrichment by restricting such operations exclusively to facilities under multinational control.

Consideration should also be given to multinational approaches to the management and disposal of spent fuel and radioactive waste, he added.

(gmcg)