UN General Assembly
1963

In the reluctance of some Member States to accept the safeguard system devised by the International Atomic Energy Agency, we find cause for grave concern, particularly when the aversion to agency safeguards is accompanied by the priority plans to produce elements essential to the manufacture of nuclear weapons. Time and again the Agency has drawn attention to the increase in the number of countries reaching the stage of nuclear capability and the danger of such capability being diverted to war-like purposes. We support the decision of the Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency to recommend extension of its safeguards to nuclear reactors exceeding the capacity of 100 thermal megawatts and to study the question of applying safeguards to equipment. The great merit of international safeguards, as compared to bilateral safeguards, is that, teeing uninfluenced by political expediencies, they inspire greater world-wide confidence. The objective of an effective system of safeguards should be to ensure, by inspection and verification at every stage of the process, from the designing and manufacture of the reactor equipment to the disposal of nuclear material, that atomic power intended for peaceful uses will not and cannot be used for other purposes.