Hit delete on the “right” to nuclear energy in new weapons ban, by Ray Acheson (Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists)
▻http://thebulletin.org/hit-delete-right-nuclear-energy-new-weapons-ban
The so-called right to nuclear energy is already enshrined in the existing Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), and reflects an outdated understanding of the technology’s risks. It is part of an ill-conceived bargain designed to convince countries that don’t already have nuclear weapons not to develop them.
We know that nuclear energy increases proliferation opportunities. All nine nuclear-armed states have used nuclear reactors to create plutonium for their nuclear weapons. In the United Kingdom and France, civilian nuclear energy and military programs overlapped. North Korea and India acquired nuclear weapons through supposedly “peaceful” civilian nuclear programs. Fears about Iran’s nuclear energy program drove a major diplomatic effort to limit its ability to develop nuclear weapons.
(…) The ban treaty may not be able to curb nuclear energy, but it must not give any legitimacy to this failed and destructive technology.