Argentina and Brazil have just signed technical agreements to produce it jointly. But "only" to sell to other countries: Argentina y Brasil producirán juntos uranio enriquecido por Eleonora Gosman Clarín 02/23/08.
Argentine President Cristina Fernández and Brazil's President Lula da Silva agreed to create a binational firm to produce industrial enriched uranium. The current timetable calls for the arrangements to be settled so that the operation can be formally begun in late August when Fernández is scheduled to make an official visit to Brazil.
Can we ever get the nuclear proliferation cat back in the bag after eight years of Cheney and Bush doing everything they thought they could get away with to destroy the existing international nonproliferation regime?
Just to be clear, current international nonproliferation agreements allow signatory countries to produce enriched uranium for nuclear power plants, which is what this agreement is presumably designed to do. It's not like they're hanging out a sign that says, "Git yer nuclear bomb technology here!"
But Iran also has the same right under the NPT (Nonproliferation Treaty). And, as we've heard from the advocates of making war on Iran for years, if a country can enrich uranium for peaceful purposes, it can develop the technology quickly for nuclear bomb purposes. There are real gaps in the nonproliferation arrangements. And one of the worst effects of the Iraq War, launched on the basis of the US unilaterally deciding to deal with Iraq's (nonexistent) "weapons of mass destruction" program, has been to discredit the existing arrangements, which rest in a real sense on actual displays of goodwill and commitment to the arrangements by the existing nuclear powers.
Tags: argentina, brazil, nonproliferation
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