Nuclear Secrecy Feeds Concerns of Rogues Getting Weapons

[Purveyor]

By Jonathan Tirone Oct 22, 2014 9:12 AM ET

As the world’s nuclear monitor tries to prevent weapons-grade material getting into the wrong hands, its determination to keep its methods secret is raising concerns among analysts that it may be risking a fatal mistake.

The International Atomic Energy Agency has increased its role trying to vouch for the safety of nuclear materials in Iran, North Korea and Syria, just as investigators have become less forthcoming about how they reach their conclusions. By feeding the distrust between the nuclear powers whose collaboration is required to keep the world safe, the agency may unwittingly aid countries seeking weapons, said Henry Sokolski, executive director of the Washington-based Non-proliferation Policy Education Center.

“The IAEA is taking a wrong turn,” Sokolski said in a telephone interview. Openness “is needed not only to assure that IAEA safeguards are improved and don’t get oversold but also to reassure the world that IAEA nuclear technical projects are steering clear of helping anyone make bombs,” he said.

The IAEA, which is charged with both promoting the peaceful use of nuclear power and controlling fuel that could be used in weapons, is holding its quadrennial safeguards meeting behind closed doors for the first time in at least 12 years this week in Vienna. The agency also decided to withdraw information about nuclear projects that have led to proliferation risks.

Restricted Access

The IAEA is restricting access to this week’s symposium, which began on Monday, so participants aren’t “inhibited,” spokeswoman Gill Tudor said in an e-mail while noting that the opening and closing ceremonies will be public. Information about technical cooperation, which has been progressively restricted since 2012, will be made available again in the “coming weeks,” IAEA public-information director Serge Gas said in an e-mail.

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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-10-21/nuclear-secrecy-feeds-concerns-of-rogues-getting-weapons.html

[KoKo]

1. "The IAEA’s inspectors check uranium inventories in more than 150 countries..."

(How can they possibly keep track of this in more than 150 countries? That's a daunting task. The article was hard to understand...but, it sounds so complicated it's probably hard to write about in an understandable way for average person.)

From Article:

Mixed Signals

The IAEA’s inspectors check uranium inventories in more than 150 countries, seal nuclear materials and review video footage to try and detect if fuel is being diverted from its officially sanctioned purposes. IAEA inspectors were at the heart of last year’s accord between Iran and other nuclear powers, verifying that the government in Tehran had capped some nuclear activities in exchange for limited sanctions relief.

Scientists at this week’s meeting will explain how they can use rooftop sensors to sniff out the gases given off during plutonium production, according to the meeting agenda. Others will look at new ways to analyze satellite imagery, more sensitive methods for measuring traces of radioactivity and the difficulties in keeping track of nuclear material at places like Japan’s $20 billion plutonium-separation facility in Rokkasho.

Without letting stakeholders know how those developments will affect them, the technological advances may end up leading to a less effective safety net for nuclear materials, said Rauf, the former IAEA official.

“The agency’s public information policy and engagement has been an unmitigated disaster,” he said. “There should be a presumption of openness and transparency rather than denial of information.”