Euratom and Nuclear Safeguards

For much of the postwar period Western Europe has been at the centre of international nuclear non-proliferation concerns.

This is because since 1945 this region has developed one of the most sophisticated nuclear infra-structures in the world.;Concomitant with that development, this region has also witnessed the coming to fruition of the European Community.

One of the initial objectives of this Community was to establish a regional nuclear safeguards system under the auspices of the European Atomic Energy Community (EURATOM).

The remit of this system has been to monitor the Community's nuclear development to ensure that nuclear materials are not diverted for purposes to which they are not intended.

Concerns about nuclear non-proliferation in Western Europe have thus coincided with the nuclear safeguards remit of EURATOM.;This book addresses a number of themes associated with these developments.

In so doing, it encompasses questions related to safeguards issues at a number of levels, national, regional and global.

There is a discussion of the relationship between certain national nuclear power programmes and questions of nuclear control and weapons proliferation.

Safeguard developments in Western Europe and the links with other regional security concerns, such as those associated with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), are also explored.

However, the real focus of attention in this book centres on the regional nuclear safeguards system implemented in Western Europe by EURATOM, the issues surrounding its establishment and the reasons to account for its so-far enduring character.