Impact of NPT on Private Industry

The effects of the Non-Proliferation Treaty on the activities of privatelyowned commercial fuel processors can, at the present time at least, be most aptly described in two words, \"added confusion\". The Non-Proliferation Treaty is an international agreement under which the signatory governments undertake to restrict the spread of nuclear weapons and weapons technology, and to induce governments who don't possess such technology to forego developing it. Industry doesn't manufacture nuclear weapons, except as operators of government facilities, under contract to the government, subject to strict security controls; so the relationship between NPT and the majority of private nuclear industry may not be immediately apparent. Of course, it lies in th^e fact that one way to discourage the development of nuclear weaponry is an international arrangement to keep the basic raw materials from becoming accessible to any potential developer. The cumulative array of techniques used to control strategic nuclear material in order to detect diversion to potential weapons developers is called \"International Safeguards\", and safeguards on any level, or on many levels, are very much the concern of private fuel processors and fabricators in the United States.