President George W. Bush took a step Monday toward ratifying an agreement to allow international officials somewhat greater access to U.S. nuclear facilities (see GSN, Oct. 24, 2007). Bush issued an executive order directing U.S. agencies to develop regulations to administer the Additional Protocol to the U.S. safeguards agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency.
The protocol, signed by U.S. officials in 1998, would enable agency officials to gain more information about peaceful U.S. nuclear practices. It would not grant them access to U.S. nuclear weapon facilities.
Ratifying the protocol would provide only modestly increased access to the agency, but would eliminate a rhetorical hurdle in U.S. nonproliferation policy, proponents have argued, because Washington has urged Iran and other nations to adopt far more intrusive versions of the agreement (see GSN, Jan. 17).
The U.S. version of the protocol received the full Senate's blessing in 2004 and implementing legislation was approved late in 2006 (see GSN, Dec. 20, 2006).
Bush's Monday order commands a variety of agencies to "issue, amend, or revise, and enforce such regulations, orders, directives, instructions, or procedures as are necessary."
The move is "part of the administration's effort to put in place all legal, regulatory, and administrative measures to enable the United States to fully comply with its obligations under the Additional Protocol and implementing legislation," an administration official told Global Security Newswire.
The official offered no prediction on when the president would formally submit the U.S. ratification (Greg Webb, Global Security Newswire, Feb. 6).