Group Wants Nuclear Loan Guarantees Blocked if France Refuses Support for U.S. Nonproliferation Standards

Nonproliferation/U.S. Nuclear Loan Guarantees - Bipartisan Group to Obama: Block Edf-Areva Nuclear LGs If France Refuses to Support America’s Global Nonproliferation Standards

Salem-News.com

(NEW YORK) - Henry Sokolski, the executive director of the Nonproliferation Policy Education Center, and 16 other leading US nuclear control experts from both the Right and the Left – including officials from the Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush (41), Clinton and Bush (43) Administrations -- called on President Obama today to condition the provision of any US federal energy loan guarantees to foreign nuclear suppliers wishing to expand their nuclear business in the US upon them supporting strong US nonproliferation standards for nuclear exports globally.

In a letter to the President available online at http://www.npolicy.org/node/1379, the bipartisan group specifically urged the Mr. Obama not to grant $9.5 billion in proposed federal nuclear loan guarantees to the French government owned firms of Areva and EdF unless the French government is willing to support the nonproliferation restrictions on the spread of easy-to-militarize nuclear fuel making activities contained in the US-UAE nuclear cooperative agreement, which was finalized last year.

The signers of the joint letter are as follows:

* Henry Sokolski, Executive Director, The Nonproliferation Policy Education Center, DOD Deputy for Nonproliferation Policy under Bush (41);

* Charles Ferguson, President, Federation of American Scientists;

* Jamie Fly, Executive Director, Foreign Policy Initiative, NSC director for Counterproliferation Policy under Bush (43);

* Jeffrey Kueter, President, George C. Marshall Institute;

* Victor Gilinsky, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commissioner under Ford, Carter, and Reagan;

* Henry S. Rowen, Hoover Institution, Assistant Secretary of Defense under Bush (41), Chairman of the National Intelligence Council under Reagan;

* Daryl Kimball, Executive Director, Arms Control Association;

* Stephen Rademaker, Assistant Secretary of State for Arms Control and Nonproliferation under Bush (43);

* Peter Bradford, University of Vermont, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commissioner under Carter;

* Thomas Cochran, Chief Nuclear Scientist, Natural Resources Defense Council;

* Chris Ford, Hudson Institute, U.S. Representative to NPT Review Conference under Bush (43);

* David Albright, President, Institute for Science and International Security;

* Mark Wallace, President, United Against Nuclear Iran, US Ambassador to the UN under Bush (43);

* Gary Milhollin, Director, Wisconsin Project on Nuclear Arms Control;

* Frank Von Hippel, Princeton University, Assistant Director for National Security in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy under Clinton; and

* Jack David, Hudson Institute, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Combating WMD and Negotiations Policy under Bush (43).

Source: The Nonproliferation Policy Education Center