IAEA to Weigh Strengthening Nuclear Laws

Jul 04 - VIENNA, Austria

Delegates from about 100 countries began work Monday to revamp an international treaty on protecting nuclear material, arguing existing laws fail to do enough to safeguard nuclear power plants from terrorism.

The push to shield nuclear facilities has gained urgency since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, amid new security concerns and nightmare scenarios of fuel-laden jumbo jets smashing into an atomic power plants.

"We can't go on with an old instrument in a new world," the conference chairman, Alec Jean Baer of Switzerland, said after the opening session. He said the proposed changes to the Convention on the Physical Protection of Nuclear Material would amount to an overhaul.

The existing treaty was signed in Vienna and New York in 1980, long before the threat of terrorist nuclear attacks had become a pressing fear. It covers the international transport of nuclear material used for peaceful purposes, as well as some provisions on domestic storage and use.

After years of talks on amending the treaty, experts said it was time to undertake the job. But so many changes are necessary, Baer said, that delegates were essentially "tearing it (the treaty) down and building it up again."

He likened the convention to an aging building that needed so much renovation that only its outer skeleton could remain intact. For the measure to be updated to meet the current threat, a "more modern ... of course, more expensive" structure is needed, he said.

The changes under consideration by some 350 delegates would strengthen existing law by establishing an international standard to protect nuclear facilities from sabotage. The new changes also would call for cooperation between countries to locate and recover stolen and smuggled material and to combat such offenses.

Though experts have long worried nuclear plants and materials could be targeted by terrorists, drawing up rules to protect them from such attacks has taken time because the efforts cost money and require expertise some countries don't have.

Baer had no estimate on how much each country will have to spend to conform to the new rules, but it would be up to states to finance the necessary changes.

"The amendments now before this conference are vitally important and if adopted, will take another significant step in reducing the vulnerability of states, parties and indeed the entire world," David B. Waller, an IAEA deputy director general, said in his opening remarks.

The session is not expected to produce instant results. Even if experts agree to amend the treaty, the countries that have signed it will all have to ratify the changes - a process that could take time.