UN General Assembly
1974

87. The need for truly effective anti-proliferation measures fully accepted and applied by the international community is now pressing. The nuclear technology involved is. no longer beyond the reach of a growing number c. countries. The costs of developing a nuclear explosive device are no longer prohibitive. The principal problem is to obtain the necessary materials. Every day more and more of these materials are being developed throughout the world and the problem of controlling their movement, as well as their use, is becoming proportionately greater. 88. The phenomenon of proliferation is, in political terms, something like a nuclear chain reaction. With the successful explosion of a nuclear device by each newcomer to the ranks of the nuclear Powers, greater grows the desire of other countries to "go nuclear". In a world without truly effective safeguards they feel their national existence threatened. If each new nuclear-weapon State prompted its neighbor to follow its example, all concerned would find their security quickly undermined.