As we said yesterday, as he was leaving his post as director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) last year, Mohamed ElBaradei warned the world about ‘virtual nuclear weapons states’, countries that will develop weapons technology but stop just short of producing an actual bomb [http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/may/14/elbaradei-nuclear-weapons-states-un]. This would, ElBaradei said, allow countries to ‘remain technically compliant with the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty while being within a couple of months of deploying and using a nuclear weapon’

It was clear from ElBaradei’s successor Yukiya Amano, in his opening speech to the nuclear Non_proliferation Treaty review at the United Nations, that ElBaradei’s warning is not being heeded…

"Nuclear power is enjoying growing acceptance as a stable and clean source of energy that can help to mitigate the impact of climate change," Amano told the meeting at U.N. headquarters in New York. "Nuclear power must be accessible not only for developed countries but also for developing countries."

We’ll leave for the moment Amano’s deceitful propaganda about nuclear power being ‘stable’ and ‘clean’ and able to ‘mitigate the impact of climate change’. He says more than 60 countries are considering adopting nuclear power. Could the IAEA monitor them all? Some of the countries on the Amano’s list are barely stable let alone functional, accountable democracies.

Couple that with the news about the global shortage of Helium-3 – a crucial ingredient in devices and technology used to detect and help stop nuclear smuggling – and its easy to see there could be some serious trouble ahead. You don’t have to worry about wind turbine smuggling or fear that the country next door is working on an energy efficiency programme.