Proposed U.S.-EURATOM Agreement

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the proposed agreement between the United States and the European Atomic Energy Community to determine whether it satisfies the Atomic Energy Act of 1954's requirements for nuclear cooperation agreements. GAO noted that the proposed agreement: (1) satisfies requirements for advance U.S. approval for retransfers, reprocessing, and designation of storage facilities for U.S.-origin nuclear materials; (2) does not provide for the transfer of sensitive nuclear technology; (3) provides the United States with the right to suspend the agreement or its advance long-term consent for reprocessing and altering the content of certain nuclear materials; (4) provides for a range of controls over European facilities handling U.S. nuclear materials; (5) will not have any discernible impact on the U.S. export licensing process; and (6) does not provide for the correction of limitations in the system for tracking exported U.S. nuclear materials.