Combating Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction

Office of International Programs. The Office of International Programs is the NRC focalpoint for export controls. This Office has both a policy-making role and a role in decidingon certain specific export licenses. Under the Atomic Energy Act, the NRC, aftercoordination with the executive branch, licenses exports of the following commodities:• Nuclear reactors,• Fuel cycle facilities,• Components of the above,• Reactor-grade graphite,• Uranium,• Plutonium, and• “Byproduct material” from reactor operations (e.g., tritium; radioactivewaste).In general, the NRC licenses exports of materials and commodities that are “speciallydesigned and prepared” for nuclear use, as that term is used in Article III of the NuclearNon-Proliferation Treaty. NRC export regulations therefore closely follow the ZanggerCommittee trigger list, intended to implement Article III.Once these commodities and materials leave the United States, NRC loses jurisdictionover them, even though the U.S. Government retains certain rights over them. Forexample, nuclear fuel exported from the United States, or any fuel used in a U.S.-originreactor, may not be reprocessed without the consent of the United States. Similarly, areactor or fuel exported from the United States under NRC license may not be transferredto a third state without U.S. consent. Such “consent rights” are not processed as NRClicenses, but rather by the “subsequent arrangement” process administered by theDepartment of Energy.By law the NRC cannot license an export if the executive branch, through the StateDepartment, objects. The reverse is not true; in theory, the NRC could refuse to license anexport even though the executive branch strongly supported the exporter’s application. Nowitness appearing before this Commission or its staff could recall an instance when thathad occurred. Should it ever happen, the Atomic Energy Act gives the President the powerto authorize the export over the NRC’s objection. (This is the one instance, mentionedabove, in which the NRC is subject to executive branch control.)The NRC must be consulted on the following export-related programs administered byother agencies:71