Word: triggers
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...export area, the Reagan Administration can claim that its cooperative approach has achieved mild success. Last year South Africa assured Washington that it would administer its nuclear program in line with the "spirit, principles and goals" that underpin the nuclear suppliers' trigger list. The Pretoria government promised that it would not supply nuclear technology, materials or equipment to any other country without International Atomic Energy Agency safeguards or the equivalent provided by the European atomic community, known as EURATOM...
Greater and more farsighted cooperation among nuclear suppliers is another necessity. The U.S. and other sellers need to update the export trigger list continuously, even if, as the Pakistan case shows, its mere existence is no defense against espionage or theft. Only more stringent, worldwide security measures will work in combating proliferation by criminal means. Supplier nations need to impose stiffer penalties on individuals and firms that either violate atomic export restrictions or fail to investigate the bona fides of would-be purchasers...
...Angeles, a federal grand jury has indicted a U.S. citizen for exporting to Israel 810 high-speed precision switches known as Krytrons, in contravention of U.S. export laws. It is an open secret that Israel has its own atomic weapons program; Krytrons can be used as part of the trigger mechanism for nuclear arms. But Israel offered to return many of the switches, and the U.S. State Department accepted Jerusalem's explanation that it did not intend to use the devices in its atomic weapons program. Still, the incident demonstrates the ease with which highly sensitive technology necessary for nuclear...
...major problems has been lack of effective agreement among suppliers about what technologies are safe to export, and under what circumstances. Following India's 1974 test blast, the U.S. and six other countries agreed on the need for tight export controls on sensitive nuclear equipment. High on the "trigger list" was plutonium-reprocessing and uranium- enrichment technology. The supplier group has since expanded to 21 countries...
Updating the list to keep pace with new technology has proved to be a disconcertingly slow process, however. It was not until last year that the trigger list was expanded to include the equipment used in the centrifuge process. Long before then, Pakistan had acquired the technology, albeit illegally...