US to stop use of nuclear raw materials in civilian programs

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, March 19, 2004

US to stop use of nuclear raw materials in civilian programs

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International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei said here Thursday that the United States is work on an "action plan" designed to stop the use of raw nuclear weapons materials in civilian programs around the world.

"They are working on an action plan already" which was designedto clean up "all the highly enriched uranium (HEU) and plutonium that is still in the civilian cycle," ElBaradei said after a meeting with US Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham.

HEU and plutonium, which are used as fuel in civilian nuclear programs, can also be used as raw materials for making atomic bombs.

Talking about his meeting with President George W. Bush on Wednesday, ElBaradei said that Bush believed that it was unacceptable that HEU is still being used in civilian program.

The IAEA chief said that he and Bush agreed that it was time tochange "many of the rules" to better prevent nuclear proliferation.

"My suggestion to the president is that we need a good plan to clean up all this nuclear weapons useable material that is all over the place," he said.

In a major speech delivered in February, President Bush launched a campaign against nuclear proliferation and called for strengthening of laws and international controls that govern proliferation and fixing the "loophole" in the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.

It is reported that there are about 100 nuclear facilities in 40 countries around the world which are using HEU or plutonium as fuel.

Source: Xinhua

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