Several countries, including Iran and North Korea, are accused of hiding nuclear weapons programs behind the veil of atomic power efforts. That's why the President is announcing a new initiative to keep nations from getting the equipment and fuel needed to make nuclear energy.
For decades, America and her allies have tried to limit which countries get nuclear weapons. But they've largely left atomic reactors alone. Now, that's about to change.
The New York Times calls it a re-examination of the "'basic bargain' underlying the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty: that those states that promise not to pursue nuclear weapons will receive help in producing nuclear fuel for power generation."
According to the paper, Bush, in a speech this afternoon, won't ask "for a reopening of the 1970 treaty, which one [official] said would be 'too hard.' Instead, he will appeal to the Nuclear Suppliers Group, 40 countries that sell most nuclear technology, to refuse to sell equipment to any country that is not already equipped to make nuclear fuel, either by enriching uranium or by reprocessing spent fuel for plutonium."
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