Pakistani Bomb Got Help From UN as Lax Oversight Weakened Nuclear Watchdog

The United Nations agency tasked with curbing nuclear proliferation may have unwittingly helped Pakistan develop its atomic-weapons program because of weak internal oversight, according to documents and interviews with three former UN scientists.

UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency provided financial and technical aid to develop Pakistan’s uranium mines and improve plutonium-producing reactors even after the country tested a nuclear weapon in 1998 in defiance of a non- proliferation treaty, IAEA documents show.

Pakistan used uranium from the mines for weapons, said three former agency scientists with direct knowledge of the situation who asked not to be identified because they are prohibited from commenting by confidentiality agreements with the IAEA. Pakistan’s two atomic-energy plants run on fuel from China and uranium from Niger under IAEA safeguards.

Pakistan in furthering its nuclear-weapons program,” said Charles Ferguson, president of the Washington-based Federation of American Scientists and a physicist who has consulted for the U.S. State Department and the Energy Department.

IAEA’s failure to prevent the use of its aid for prohibited military purposes raises questions about its ability to police the nuclear material that it helps countries produce. The agency, winner of the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize, helped North Korea develop its uranium mines before the Asian country kicked inspectors out in 2003. Syria, under investigation since 2007 for what the U.S. alleges is a secret atomic-weapons program.

IAEA spokeswoman Gill Tudor, who declined three requests to address assertions that the agency helped Pakistan’s weapons program. Countries sign agreements with the agency that prohibit them from using aid for atomic bombs. IAEA has played a dual role. While best known for its inspection work in countries suspected of secretly pursuing nuclear weapons, such as Iran and Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, it also aids countries that have vowed to forgo atomic weapons in their civilian. UN agency’s help because the IAEA doesn’t follow up to make sure aid has been used for its intended purpose, said Mark Hibbs, a Berlin-based analyst at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, who has researched illicit nuclear networks for more than 20 years.

Pakistani IAEA Ambassador Ansar Parvez said in a Sept. 27 interview when the country assumed the rotating chairmanship of the IAEA’s board of governors. He called Pakistan “a model member” of the IAEA. Parvez didn’t respond to an e-mail yesterday seeking additional comment. Pakistan’s IAEA mission in Vienna didn’t respond to three phone calls made during business hours yesterday.

One geologist said he was denied a visit to the Dera Ghazi mine and was instead brought to help Pakistani counterparts prospect for new uranium deposits. Both scientists declined to be identified because the details of their work at the agency aren’t public. A five-year project funded in 1997, the year before Pakistan’s nuclear-bomb tests, showed the IAEA “enhanced capability in uranium exploration” in Pakistan’s Qabul Khel uranium mine, located in the violent Northwest Frontier Province, and helped lift production of yellowcake -- material needed to make bombs.