A BITTER dispute over nuclear verification is dividing the European Union
and the UN International Atomic Energy Agency, according to a leaked document.
An internal memo from a senior IAEA official says that the EU is offended at the
suggestion that it should accept the same checks to prevent covert construction
of nuclear bombs as other countries.
The IAEA is trying to introduce more thorough inspections of nuclear plants
worldwide to avoid a repeat of its failure to detect the nuclear weapons that
were being secretly developed by Iraq before the outbreak of the Gulf War in
1991. But the EU argues that inspections in Europe carried out by its own
nuclear agency, Euratom, are already sufficient.
The IAEA鈥檚 deputy director-general, Bruno Pellaud, wrote the memo in December
to his boss, Hans Blix. It describes how a 鈥渄eep divergence鈥� between the IAEA
and the EU was revealed at a meeting in Brussels that month. 鈥淭he meeting was
difficult,鈥� it says. 鈥淭he European Commission declined to move on almost all
pending issues.鈥�
Advertisement
The main disagreement is over the refusal of the EU to allow IAEA inspectors
to take regular samples from nuclear facilities in five EU countries. The levels
of radioactivity at such sites can provide evidence of illicit bomb-making, and
most countries allow the IAEA to take samples. But the EU, says the memo, wants
鈥渕ore favourable treatment than other states鈥�.
Pellaud reports that the European Commission鈥檚 director-general for energy,
Pablo Benavides, privately told him 鈥渋n emphatic terms that it would be
insulting for the EU to be reminded that other countries such as Argentina,
Brazil and Iran are accepting the collection of environmental samples鈥�. Pellaud
also claims that Benavides defended 鈥渨ith angry overtones鈥� Euratom鈥檚 technical
ability to conduct monitoring.
There is a particularly fierce quarrel about new IAEA equipment known as
CEMO, designed to continuously monitor levels of enrichment at uranium plants.
Pellaud says that CEMO is in use in Britain, installed but not operating in the
Netherlands and delivered but not installed in Germany. Although 鈥渆arlier
technical deficiencies鈥� have been overcome, he complains that CEMO is dismissed
by Euratom as 鈥渨orthless鈥�.
Wilhelm Gmelin, director of Euratom, told New 杏吧原创 that the
differences between the EU and the IAEA arise because each thinks its own
monitoring techniques are superior. 鈥淲e think we are right and the IAEA thinks
it is right,鈥� he says.