IAEA_History.qxd 10.01.2003 11:01 Uhr Seite 1 HISTORY OF THE INTERNATIONAL ATOMIC Also available: ENERGY International Atomic Energy Agency: Personal Reflections (18 ✕ 24 cm; 311 pp.) AGENCY The reflections are written by a group of distinguished scientists and diplomats who were involved in the establishment or The First Forty Years subsequent work of the IAEA. It represents a collection of by ‘essays’ which offer a complementary and personal view on some of the topics considered in the full history. David Fischer A fortieth anniversary publication ISBN 92–0–102397–9 IAEA_History.qxd 10.01.2003 11:01 Uhr Seite 2 The ‘temporary’ In 1979, the Austrian headquarters of Government and the IAEA in the City of Vienna the Grand Hotel, on completed construction the Ringstrasse in of the Vienna central Vienna. International Centre The Agency remained (VIC), next to the there for some Donaupark, which twenty years, until 1979. became the permanent home of the IAEA and other UN organizations. Austria generously made the buildings and facilities at the VIC available at the ‘peppercorn’ rent of one Austrian Schilling a year. IAEA_History.qxd 10.01.2003 11:01 Uhr Seite 2 The ‘temporary’ In 1979, the Austrian headquarters of Government and the IAEA in the City of Vienna the Grand Hotel, on completed construction the Ringstrasse in of the Vienna central Vienna. International Centre The Agency remained (VIC), next to the there for some Donaupark, which twenty years, until 1979. became the permanent home of the IAEA and other UN organizations. Austria generously made the buildings and facilities at the VIC available at the ‘peppercorn’ rent of one Austrian Schilling a year. HISTORY OF THE INTERNATIONAL ATOMIC ENERGY AGENCY The First Forty Years HISTORY OF THE INTERNATIONAL ATOMIC ENERGY AGENCY The First Forty Years by David Fischer VIC Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Fischer, David. History of the International Atomic Energy Agency : the first forty years / by David Fischer. — Vienna : The Agency, 1997. p. ; 24 cm. “A Fortieth Anniversary Publication.” ISBN 92–0–102397–9 Includes bibliographical references. 1. International Atomic Energy Agency—History. I. International Atomic Energy Agency. VICL 92-00172 © IAEA 1997 Permission to reproduce or translate the information contained in this publication may be obtained by writing to: Division of Publications International Atomic Energy Agency Wagramerstrasse 5 P.O. Box 100 A-1400 Vienna Austria STI/PUB/1032 ISBN 92–0–102397–9 Printed by the IAEA in Austria September 1997 HISTORY OF THE IAEA PREFACE by the Director General of the IAEA here is a rich literature about the United Nations which includes analyses of the Charter and different phases and aspects of the organization’s Twork. There are also many personal recollections by individuals which add to the general store of knowledge on the UN. Less has been written about the specialized organizations in the UN family. Yet many innovations in inter- national co-operation first emerged in such organizations and a close study of their statutes and records is often rewarding for the student of international affairs. However, official documents do not tell the whole story. Accounts by persons closely connected with such organizations help us to understand better how they function. Lawrence Scheinman’s The International Atomic Energy Agency and World Nuclear Order has so far been the only systematic study of the IAEA. It was therefore felt that it would be a valuable and inter- esting contribution to the celebration of the fortieth anniversary of the Agency to publish a history of the organization as seen by someone who was “present at the creation” and has been involved in much of its life. Professor William Potter, the Director of the Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Monterey Institute of International Studies, kindly agreed that the Institute would join the IAEA in sponsoring the project and sharing its cost. The Institute commissioned Mr. David Fischer, who has been associated with the IAEA for more than forty years, to write the history of the Agency. David Fischer took part in the negotiation of the IAEA’s Statute in 1954–1956 and served on the IAEA’s Preparatory Commission. From 1957 until 1981 he was the Agency’s Director and subsequently Assistant Director General for External Relations. In 1981 and 1982 he was Special Adviser to Director General Eklund and to myself. Since then he has served as a consultant to the IAEA on many occasions. David Fischer was greatly helped by an Editorial Advisory Committee comprising Mr. Munir Ahmed Khan (formerly Chairman of the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission and Chairman of the IAEA Board of Governors in 1986–1987), Professor Lawrence Scheinman (of the Monterey Institute of International Studies and formerly Deputy Director of the US Arms Control and Disarmament Agency) and Dr. Tadeusz Wojcik (Chairman of the Polish Nuclear Society and former chef de cabinet of the Director General of the IAEA). All three are closely related professionally, in different fields, to the PREFACE IAEA and served on the Advisory Committee in their personal capacities. Ambassador Roland Timerbaev, for a long time Resident Representative of the USSR to the IAEA, also read the draft manuscript of the History and pro- vided many invaluable insights. However, this book does not purport to express the views of the Advisory Committee or of the IAEA or its Member States. The responsibility for all statements is that of the author alone. The philosopher George Santayana once wrote that “those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it”. That risk is particularly high in an international organization with a rapid turnover of staff and of the representatives of the States that frame its policies. To understand the present character of the IAEA and its future potential, it is essential to know how and why the IAEA has become what it is today. The dry terms of the IAEA’s Statute and its records are not enough; the Agency has also been formed by experience, practice, style and tradition. It is hoped therefore that this book together with its companion piece — the reflections of persons who played a prominent part in the creation and development of the IAEA — will help to provide the needed historical perspective. I would like to thank most warmly all those who have contributed the time and effort put into commemorating the Agency’s fortieth birthday. I would particularly like to thank Mr. Munir Khan, who first suggested the idea of the History and the collection of essays. Hans Blix HISTORY OF THE IAEA CONTENTS Introduction 1 PART I — THE CREATION OF THE IAEA Chapter 1: Eisenhower Proposes a New Agency 9 Chapter 2: 1939–1953: The Dual Challenge of Nuclear Energy 15 Chapter 3: 1954–1956: Negotiation of the IAEA’s Statute 29 Chapter 4: 1957 — The Preparatory Commission and 57 the First General Conference PART II — 1957–1997: THE IAEA IN OPERATION Chapter 5: A Changing Political and Technical Environment 71 Chapter 6: The IAEA and Nuclear Power 143 Chapter 7: Nuclear Safety and the Management 183 of Nuclear Waste Chapter 8: Nuclear Safeguards 243 Chapter 9: The Transfer of Nuclear Technology to 325 the Developing World Chapter 10: The IAEA and the Applications of 373 Nuclear Techniques (Radioisotopes and Radiation) Chapter 11: The Exchange of Nuclear Information 401 PART III — ISSUES AND CONCLUSIONS Chapter 12: Issues 411 Chapter 13: Conclusions 451 Annex 1 — Statute of the International Atomic Energy Agency 471 Annex 2 — Atoms for Peace 493 Annex 3 — Selected Statistical Data, 1958–1995 497 Glossary 503 Bibliography 513 Index 529 HISTORY OF THE IAEA INTRODUCTION he IAEA is unlike any other specialized organization of the United Nations family. Most of those agencies set out to achieve a broad eco- Tnomic or social aim: better health, better education, more and better food, economic progress and stability, preservation and enhancement of our natural and cultural heritage, safer travel and transport by sea or air.1 The IAEA’s fortunes are uniquely geared to those of a single, relatively new and controversial technology that can be used either as a weapon or as a practical and useful tool, that has almost infinite capacity to inflict harm but that also has an almost infinite potential to generate the energy on which the world will increasingly depend in the coming centuries to improve the conditions of life of its growing population. The IAEA was created in response to the deep fears and great expectations resulting from the discovery of nuclear energy, fears and expectations that have changed profoundly since 1945 and continue to fluctuate. As a result, what the IAEA is asked to do about nuclear energy, and indeed, what it can do and does, are much affected by the vicissitudes of national moods, international politics and technological change. The IAEA’s history illustrates these points. Its genesis was President Eisenhower’s address to the General Assembly of the United Nations on 8 December 1953, though many of the ideas he presented had earlier roots. Diplomats and lawyers, advised by scientists, and drawing on the precedents set by other organizations, developed these ideas into a charter of an interna- tional agency, the IAEA Statute, which 81 nations unanimously approved in October 1956. In the years following Eisenhower’s speech and the approval of the IAEA’s Statute the political and technical climate had changed so much that by 1958 it had become politically impracticable for the IAEA to begin work on some of the main tasks foreseen in its Statute. But in the aftermath of the 1962 Cuban missile crisis, the USA and the USSR began seeking common ground in nuclear arms control.2 As more countries mastered nuclear technology, concern deepened that they would sooner or later acquire nuclear weapons, particularly since two additional nations had recently ‘joined the club’, France in 1960 and China in 1964.