Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty

As of 1995, there were no nuclear fuel reprocessing plants operating in the United States. Other nuclear nations have constmcted second- or third-generation reprocessing faciUties. These nations have signed the nuclear nonproliferation treaty, and the faciUties are under the purview of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). 

Nuclear power for civil use is well established in India. Its civil nuclear strategy has been directed toward complete independence in the nuclear fuel cycle, necessary because it is excluded from the 1970 Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) due to it acquiring nuclear weapons capability after 1970. 

The Nonproliferation Treaty and the international safeguards to support it failed, unfortunately, to stop new countries from getting possession of nuclear weapons. The effectiveness of political measures would be largely enhanced, if the processes of potential danger from the viewpoint of nuclear proliferation were phased out with development of the new nuclear technology. Such processes include the following ... 

During the Cold War, both the Soviet Union and the United States were reluctant to consider any type of disarmament. Even as many nations continued to develop and stockpile chemical weapons, and as new players undertook to arm themselves with the agents, nuclear weapons took center stage. The world of disarmament was dominated by test-ban treaties and nuclear nonproliferation pacts. 

INDIA. India has a well-developed nuclear, biological, and chemical (NBC) and ballistic missile defense establishment. It is currently destroying a chemical weapon (CW) stockpile in accordance with its obligations under the Chemical Weapons Convention(CWC). India has conducted at least six tests of nuclear weapons and was estimated to possess 50 nuclear warheads as of 2006. India is not a party to the Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT). See also ATOMS FOR PEACE SMILING BUDDHA. 

March The accidental release of VX during an open-air chemical warfare (CW) test kills more than a thousand sheep in Skull Valley, east of Dugway Proving Ground, Utah. 1 July The Treaty on the Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons (Nonproliferation Treaty, NPT) is opened for signature. 

Convinced that the most effective way to achieve an end to nuclear testing is through the conclusion of a universal and internationally and effectively verifiable comprehensive nuclear-test-ban treaty, which has long been one of the highest priority objectives of the international community in the field of disarmament and nonproliferation. 

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