To: UN Secretary General
With copies to: IAEA, national representatives to UN, media, NGO community

We, the undersigned organisations, would like to bring your attention to the urgent deficiencies of international non-proliferation regimes connected with the promotion of nuclear energy.

Today, many countries can obtain nuclear weapons because of the undeniable and inevitable connection between nuclear power and nuclear weapons. The existing system of non-proliferation treaties and IAEA safeguard systems have failed to put a halt to proliferation since their conception.

The fact that the concepts of "atoms for peace" and "atoms for war" are indistinguishable from one another has led to the current crisis situation where the nuclear programs of countries such as Iran and North Korea are causing such concern amongst the international community.

The IAEA has identified the prevention of nuclear weapons proliferation as a major challenge but it acknowledges the "failed operation of the export control regime, as evidenced by the recently discovered black market of nuclear material and equipment" and " the perilous spread of fuel cycle technology." As the IAEA states, under the current non-proliferation regime, there is nothing illicit in a non-nuclear-weapons state having enrichment or reprocessing technology, or possessing weapon-grade nuclear material; and if a State with a fully developed fuel-cycle capability and highly industrialized infrastructure were to decide to reject its non-proliferation commitments, it could produce a nuclear weapon within a matter of months.

The IAEA has recently acknowledged that in order to address these vulnerabilities, it needs to bring the production of new fuel, the processing of weapon-usable material, and the disposal of spent fuel and radioactive waste under multi-national control and claims that advantages in terms of cost, safety, security and non-proliferation could accrue from such a multi-national approach. It is not clear how the same multi-national approach that has failed to accomplish non-proliferation of nuclear weapons or addressed many other crucial issues could accomplish this.

This public admission of failure by IAEA amounts to an appeal for the overhaul of international non-proliferation regimes and we the undersigned would like to add our support to this call.

At present, the nuclear establishment operates as a state within a state without any accountability, transparency or public debate, especially where budgetary considerations are involved. It is not in the public interest to allow such practices to continue. Civil society has experienced the erosion of democratic and human rights and we would request that you initiate a discussion on these matters within the UN structure and would, as principal stakeholders, be willing to participate in such a discussion.

Our aim is a world free of nuclear technology and to achieve this we suggest that the existing IAEA be substituted with an agency for the efficient control of all nuclear facilities (military and civilian) and materials, and that excludes the promotion of nuclear technology from its mandate. We would also advocate the installation of a new International Renewables Energy Agency (IREA) for the promotion of renewable energy, which is today already capable of completely substituting the dangerous and environmentally destructive nuclear and fossil fuel energy sources, and supports the efficient use of energy. The sun sends 7000 times the amount of energy as the sum consumed by the entire world at present to the surface of the earth. It is a question of political will, and not of technology, to enable the provision of the global supply of electrical energy with clean renewable energy sources within a decade or two.