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to prevent nuclear proliferation .
T he Non-Proliferation Treaty,
drawn up in 1968, was thought to be
the primary bulwa rk against the
spread of nuclea r weapons. Those
co untries who ratify the trea ty
promise to accept inspection of a l!
their nuclear power plants and other
nu c lear faci liti es by the Int e r–
na tional Atomic Energy Agcncy
(IAEA), a United Nations agency.
The main problem with this a p–
proach is that abou t 40 countries
si mply ignore th e NPT, including
France and C hina. Among the e
non-signa tories a re nea rly ha lf of
the 20 or so countries which could
casily devel op nuclear wcapons .
These "thresho ld" countries include
Argentina. Braz il, Egypt. Is rae l,
Pa kistan, South Africa. and Spain.
Another sho rtcoming is tha t any
co untry ca n withdraw from th e
trea ty a fter 90-day's notice.
The only " teeth" in the who le sys–
tem , obviously. a re the open in–
spections of nuclear pl a nts. For
those countries outside the sys tem,
h owever, there isn't eve n this
sa feguard. Víctor Gilinsky, a mem–
ber ofthe Nuclear Regula tory Com–
mission, has sta ted that he doubts
th a t any such system - even with
ins pection - could ever prevent a
sudden appropriation of plutonium
fo r weapons-making purposes.
1n short. like o ther matters of in–
terna tiona l law, compliance with
nuclea r safegua rds ultimate ly rests
on the voluntary submission of each
individua l na tion.
In light of this potential fo r nu–
clear proli fe ra ti on, a con troversy
has arisen in the United Sta tes
a bout a na tiona l policy towa rd the
sa le o f Ame rica n-mad e nuclea r re–
actors overseas. Al stake is a multi–
billion dolla r market, ho tly pursued
by American firms such as West–
inghouse and Genera l Electric, and
compe titors in Canada and Europe.
The U.S. firms a rgue th a t the best
way to restrict nuclear p rolife ration
is Lo stimula te the market for Amer–
ican manufactures. T hey point out
that the U.S. govcrnment has more
stringent inspcction standards tha n
the IAEA and th a t the special cha r–
acteristics of the American " light–
wa ter" reactor make it difficull to
produce atomic bombs .
U.S. policy does not permit the
The
PLAIN TRUTH November 1976
sa le of reprocess ing p lants. The
American government prefers that
thc "spent" ura nium from U.S. re–
actors be shipped back for repro–
cess ing. T he probl em is, sorne buyer
countries do not want to be depen–
dent on the U.S. for their repro–
cessed uranium. They want to be
ab le to reprocess the fue! th em–
se lves. The net effect is to cause
American firms to lose sa les to ex–
porters from competitor countrics
who have no qualms about throw–
ing in reprocessing technology to
"sweeten" a reactor deal.
When the governments of major
exporters do not sign the N PT th em–
se lves, there seems little hope tha t
nucl ea r prolife ration can be halted .
Frighteningly, a world full o!' nuclear
weapons would leave very litt le room
fo r diploma tic errors.
lt
would be an
a pocalyptic tindc rbox.
o
GREECE DRAWS
CLOSER TO COMMON
MARKET MEMBERSHIP
Negotiations a re currently unde r
way at European Community head–
quarters in Brussels, Be lgium, aimed
at making Greece the tenth Common
Market membe r by 1979.
The talks are expectcd to be pro–
lo nged and complex, as the economic
te rms of Greece's membe rship are
laboriously hashed out.
The bargaining will probably run
through the summer of 1977. For–
mal ratification and acceptance of
th e final package by Community
membcrs is expected to take a n–
o the r year and a ha lf. Greece's for–
mal e ntry int o the g roup will
therefore mos t likcly come in Janu–
ary 1979.
Grecce, with its re la tively back–
ward economy and agricultura ! o ri–
enta tion. would be the EC's poorest
membe r. lts pe r capita income is
less tha n half the EC average.
Originally. some Community
m e mb e rs had mai nt ai n ed that
G reece was no t economica lly ready
for fu ll membership. The consensus
now, however , is tha t the poli ti ca l
and stra tegic advantages of G reek
membership will o ut we i gh the
drawbacks.
Grecce b eca mc a n associate
member of the EC in 1962, but its
affi liation was suspended in 1967
fo llowing a military cou p. With the
return of civilian government in
July 1974, Grecce's associa te s tatus
was resumed. Formal appli ca tion
for full membersh ip was made in
June 1975.
Though they know their economy
will have a tough time competing
against the industr ia lized nations
of Western Eu ropc, Greek oflicia ls
hope the Communi ty will providc
both the incentive and the fin anc ia !
ass istance Greece needs to modern–
ize he r industry and agriculture.
West Germany, for one, has gane
on record as be ing willi ng to shoul–
der much of the financia! burden
dur ing the ea rly years of adj ust–
me n t. Bon n has been a majar
backer ofGreek membershi p.
In addi tion, Greck leaders hope
that EC membe rship will provide a
sa feguard against a possi ble fut ure
return
lO
the type of dictatorship
which stifled the Aegean na tion for
seven years.
Coinciding with the opening of
membersh ip negot iations. some
Commun ity rnembcrs have report–
edly been pressuring G reece to re–
sume full pa rticipation in NATO's
integratcd military command struc–
ture, which Grcece left in 1974
when NATO fai led to stop neigh–
boring Turkey - anot he r NATO
na tion - from invading Cyprus. All
Community nations except Ireland
are mcmbers ofNATO.
Though Greek Prime Min istc r
Constant ine Ca ramanlis and othe r
gove rnment officia ls repo rtedly fa–
vor a return lo full NATO participa–
tion, there is still strong G reek
public opinion against such a move.
The failure of Greece to resume full
ties with the a ll iance is not, how–
ever, expected to affect the Commu–
nity mcmbership talks.
It is be lieved tha t progress toward
full EC membership for Greece will
push ri va l Turkey into seeking full
member stat us as well. T urkey is
a lso an associa te member of the EC.
l f Grcece is admitted as p lanned.
th e tenth flagpole in front of the
EC's Brussels headq ua rters - va–
can t since Norway's last-minute
change of mind about joining in
1972 - will al last have a flag to
fly.
o
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