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Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Energy and Its Interrelationship with Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament

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Nuclear Non-Proliferation in International Law - Volume III

Abstract

The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) is based on three equally important pillars: non-proliferation of nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices; the development and use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes; and disarmament. Because of the strong interrelationship between these different objectives, none of them can be examined in isolation. This Chapter explores this interrelationship, focussing on the key issues of peaceful uses, i.e. safety and security of nuclear material and facilities. It provides a précis of tasks and activities towards this end, considers the relevant roles of nation States and the International Atomic Energy Agency, and ultimately presents some conclusions for international cooperation in this sensitive field where political discussion too often dominates over legal analysis.

Jonathan L. Black-Branch

Dean of Law and Professor of International and Comparative Law at Robson Hall, Faculty of Law, University of Manitoba; a Barrister at One Garden Court, London; a Magistrate in Oxfordshire; a Justice of the Peace for England & Wales; a Member of Wolfson College, University of Oxford; and Chair of the International Law Association (ILA) Committee on Nuclear Weapons, Non-Proliferation & Contemporary International Law.

Dieter Fleck

Former Director International Agreements & Policy, Federal Ministry of Defence, Germany; Member of the Advisory Board of the Amsterdam Center for International Law (ACIL); Honorary President, International Society for Military Law and the Law of War; Rapporteur of the ILA Committee on Nuclear Weapons, Non-Proliferation and Contemporary International Law.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Eisenhower 1953.

  2. 2.

    Atomic Energy Act of 1946 (Public Law 585, 70th Congress), https://www.osti.gov/atomicenergyact.pdf , inter alia Sections 5, 7 and 10.

  3. 3.

    Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as amended, inter alia, by the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Act of 1978 (Public Law 83–703, 68 Stat. 919 83rd Congress), http://pbadupws.nrc.gov/docs/ML1327/ML13274A489.pdf.

  4. 4.

    Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (1 July 1968) 729 UNTS 161.

  5. 5.

    Article IX(3) NPT states that, ‘a nuclear-weapon State is one which has manufactured and exploded a nuclear weapon or other nuclear explosive device prior to January 1, 1967’.

  6. 6.

    See IAEA 2007. As noted in this Glossary, there is ‘not an exact distinction between the general terms safety and security.—In general, security is concerned with malicious or negligent actions by humans that could cause or threaten harm to other humans; safety is concerned with the broader issue of harm to humans (or the environment) from radiation, whatever the cause. The precise interaction between security and safety depends on the context. “Safety and security synergies” concern, for example: the regulatory infrastructure; engineering provisions in the design and construction of nuclear installations and other facilities; controls on access to nuclear installations and other facilities; the categorization of radioactive sources; source design; the security of the management of radioactive sources and radioactive material; the recovery of orphan sources; emergency response plans; and radioactive waste management.—Safety matters are intrinsic to activities, and transparent and probabilistic safety analysis is used. Security matters concern malicious actions and are confidential, and threat based judgement is used.’

  7. 7.

    © International Atomic Energy Agency (see IAEA 2007), reproduced here with kind permission of the IAEA.

  8. 8.

    For a general overview see ElBaradei et al. (Eds.) 1993, Vols. 1 and 2, 151–1400. Significant treaty improvements have been achieved since with the Convention on Nuclear Safety (20 September 1994), INFCIRC/449, 1963 UNTS 293; Joint Convention on the Safety of Spent Fuel Management and on the Safety of Radioactive Waste Management, INFCIRC/546 (29 September 1997); Convention on Early Notification of a Nuclear Accident (26 September 1986), 1439 UNTS 275, INFCIRC/335; Convention on Assistance in the Case of a Nuclear Accident or Radiological Emergency (26 September 1986), 1457 UNTS 133, INFCIRC/336; International Convention on Liability and Compensation for Damage in Connection with the Carriage of Hazardous and Noxious Substances (3 May 1996), 35 ILM 1406, 1415 (1996); Convention on Supplementary Compensation for Nuclear Damage—CSC—(12 September 1997), INFCIRC/567, 36 ILM 1454 (1997); and, at regional level, the Council of Europe Convention on Civil Liability for Damage Resulting from Activities Dangerous to the Environment (21 June 1993), 32 ILM 1228, 1230 (1993).

  9. 9.

    See below, Chap. 8 (Drobysz).

  10. 10.

    See IAEA 2014a, p. 1; IAEA 2014b; and IAEA 2015a, presenting in detail the status of nuclear power as of 31 December 2014; see also IAEA, Power Reaction Information System (PRIS), https://www.iaea.org/pris/, and the map at http://www.theguardian.com/environment/interactive/2012/mar/08/nuclear-power-plants-world-map.

  11. 11.

    These naval vessels are powered by some 180 reactors; see World Nuclear Association, http://www.world-nuclear.org/info/Non-Power-Nuclear-Applications/Transport/Nuclear-Powered-Ships/#.UV5yQsrpyJM; see also Hirdaris et al. 2014.

  12. 12.

    See Manóvil 2014, pp 135–306; 307–422; 423–468; 491–503; 633–807.

  13. 13.

    IAEA 2015c.

  14. 14.

    See The International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale (INES), https://www.iaea.org/ns/tutorials/regcontrol/appendix/app96.htm?w=1Three+Mile+Island; https://www.iaea.org/sites/default/files/ines.pdf. Such events have occurred in Ascó (Spain); Atucha (Argentina); Blayais (France); Buenos Aires (Argentina); Chalk River (Canada); Forsmark (Sweden); Goiâna (Brazil); Gundremmingen (Germany); Gravelines (France); Jaslovské Bohunice (Czech Republic); Krško (Slovenia); Lucens/ Vaud (Switzerland); Mayak (Russia); Paks (Hungary); Penly (France); Saint-Laurent (France); Sellafield (UK); Shika (Japan); SL-1 Experimental Power Station Idaho (US); Tokaimura (Japan); Vandellos (Spain); and Windscale Reprocessing Plant (UK).

  15. 15.

    The NPT has a total of 190 States Parties, i.e. more than any other arms limitation and disarmament agreement, http://www.un.org/disarmament/WMD/Nuclear/NPT.shtml. India, Israel, and Pakistan have not joined the Treaty. The People’s Republic of Korea, which acceded to it on 12 December 1985, has announced its withdrawal on 10 January 2003 and so far ignored requests by the Security Council to retract its withdrawal and abandon all nuclear weapons and existing nuclear programmes in a complete, verifiable and irreversible manner, see SC Res 1695 (2006), 1718 (2006), 1874 (2009), 1928 (2010), 2050 (2012) 2087 (2013, 2094 (2013), 2141 (2014), 2207 (2015), 2270 (2016).

  16. 16.

    Stoiber et al. 2003, Editorial Note by M. ElBaradei.

  17. 17.

    Statute of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA Statute) of 26 October 1956, 276 UNTS 3988, amended 1963, 1973, 1989, and 1999, https://www.iaea.org/about/about-statute, Article II.

  18. 18.

    Article III A 6 IAEA Statute. See The Agency’s Safety Standards and Measures, INFCIRC/18/Rev. 1 (April 1976).

  19. 19.

    Tonhauser 2013, at 180–184.

  20. 20.

    Article III A 5 IAEA Statute.

  21. 21.

    ElBaradei 2007, 108.

  22. 22.

    Article IX H IAEA Statute confirms that the Agency shall ensure that fissile materials in its possession shall be safeguarded against hazards of weather, unauthorized removal and damage.

  23. 23.

    Fischer 1997, 183 ff, 219.

  24. 24.

    Findlay 2011, at 104, 109–110, 113, 117, 119, 130, 164, 197, 202, 214, and in particular at 128 (‘Peer review, via the IAEA and WANO, is an innovation that appears to work well, making up for the lack of monitoring and verification.’), and 198 (‘peer review … appears to work surprisingly well’).

  25. 25.

    See e.g. the statement in IAEA 2015b, at p. 49: ‘The vulnerability of the Fukushima Daiichi NPP to external hazards had not been reassessed in a systematic and comprehensive manner during its lifetime. At the time of the accident, there were no regulatory requirements in Japan for such reassessments and relevant domestic and international operating experience was not adequately considered in the existing regulations and guidelines. The regulatory guidelines in Japan on methods for dealing with the effects of events associated with earthquakes, such as tsunamis, were generic and brief, and did not provide specific criteria or detailed guidance.’.

  26. 26.

    Convention on Early Notification of a Nuclear Accident (26 September 1986), 1439 UNTS 275, INFCIRC/335; Convention on Assistance in the Case of a Nuclear Accident or Radiological Emergency (26 September 1986), 1457 UNTS 133, INFCIRC/336.

  27. 27.

    Convention on Nuclear Safety (20 September 1994), INFCIRC/449, 1963 UNTS 293.

  28. 28.

    Joint Convention on the Safety of Spent Fuel Management and on the Safety of Radioactive Waste Management (29 September 1997), IAEA Document GOV/INF/821-GC(41)/INF/12, INFCIRC/546.

  29. 29.

    IAEA Code of Conduct on the Safety and Security of Radioactive Sources and the Supplementary Guidance on the Import and Export of Radioactive Sources, INFCIRC/663, IAEA General Conference 47/RES/7 (8 September 2003); IAEA Code of Conduct on the Safety of Research Reactors (IAEA/CODEOC/RR/2006); IAEA (2002); IAEA Guidelines for the Management of Plutonium (2004), INFCIRC/549; IAEA 2015c.

  30. 30.

    See e.g. IAEA 2015b. Already in the aftermath of the Three Mile Island accident in 1981 a program of operational safety advisory review teams (OSART) was instituted. Following the Chernobyl accident, the number of requests has increased significantly, see Scheinman 1987, at 104, Fischer 1997, at 192–210. After the Fukushima Daiichi accident the process of learning and acting upon lessons was again strengthened under the auspices of the IAEA, see Gioia 2012, p. 101.

  31. 31.

    Declaration by the IAEA Ministerial Conference on Nuclear Safety in Vienna on 20 June 2011, INFCIRC/821, https://www.iaea.org/sites/default/files/infcirc821.pdf, para 19.

  32. 32.

    The Action Plan on Nuclear Safety, IAEA Doc. GOV/2011/59-GC(55)/14 (5 September 2011), https://www.oecd-nea.org/nsd/fukushima/documents/IAEA_9_5_2011%20Action%20Plan_gc55-14.pdf; see also Nuclear Safety Review 2015, IAEA/NSR/2015, https://www.iaea.org/About/Policy/GC/GC59/GC59InfDocuments/English/gc59inf-4_en.pdf.

  33. 33.

    See http://www-ns.iaea.org/committees/.

  34. 34.

    See also Progress in the Implementation of the IAEA Action Plan on Nuclear Safety Supplementary Information, https://www.iaea.org/About/Policy/GC/GC57/GC57InfDocuments/English/gc57inf-5-att1_en.pdf, para 133.

  35. 35.

    See Gioia 2012, at 99–100, and below, Chap. 12 (Pelzer).

  36. 36.

    For similar proposals see Findlay 2011, Gioia 2012, and below Chap. 7 (Anastassov). On a strengthened role of the IAEA in the field of nuclear security see also Vassalli di Dachenhausen 2015, Drobysz and Persbo 2015.

  37. 37.

    See e.g. Williams et al. 2015.

  38. 38.

    See Draft Final Document NPT/CONF.2015/R.3 (21 May 2015).

  39. 39.

    Nuclear Security Summit 2014, http://www.nss2014.com/en/nss-2014/results.

  40. 40.

    See https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2016/04/01/nuclear-security-summit-2016-communiqué.

  41. 41.

    See http://tass.ru/en/politics/866605.

  42. 42.

    See http://tass.ru/en/world/866746.

  43. 43.

    Statute of the International Court of Justice (26 June 1945), UNCIO XV, 355.

  44. 44.

    Rules of Court, adopted on 14 April 1978, http://www.icj-cij.org/documents/index.php?p1=4&p2=3&.

  45. 45.

    The Guardian (18 February 2016), http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/feb/18/obama-administration-north-korea-tighter-sanctions.

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  1. Faculty of Law, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB, R3T 2N2, Canada

    Jonathan L. Black-Branch

  2. Richard-Wagner-Str. 30, 50999, Cologne, Germany

    Dieter Fleck

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  1. Faculty of Law, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

    Jonathan L. Black-Branch

  2. Cologne, Germany

    Dieter Fleck

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Black-Branch, J.L., Fleck, D. (2016). Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Energy and Its Interrelationship with Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament. In: Black-Branch, J., Fleck, D. (eds) Nuclear Non-Proliferation in International Law - Volume III. T.M.C. Asser Press, The Hague. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-6265-138-8_1

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