Examination of Relationship between Nuclear Transparency and Nonproliferation

Promotion of nuclear energy program is, in many cases, considered to be closely associated with nuclear proliferation. A country developing nuclear energy program needs to show the willingness to be transparent about nuclear power development and also need to commit to nonproliferation norms. A related question in this regard is “How would transparency of nuclear power development in a country be related to nuclear nonproliferation commitment of a state?”. If the transparency is positively related to nuclear nonproliferation, then nuclear transparency can be an essential prerequisite for nuclear power development ensuring confidence in nuclear nonproliferation. Our study formulated the hypothesis that higher nuclear transparency is positively related to nuclear non-proliferation. And investigation will be made to test the hypothesis. Along with proposing a simple framework to define nuclear transparency of a state, a survey will be conducted among a group of experts in nuclear energy and nuclear nonproliferation for a select number of countries (a total of 25 countries) to investigate how experts view the concept of nuclear transparency for civilian nuclear power development, and how experts would rate different countries with respect to their nuclear transparency status. Results of the survey will be used to examine the relationship between nuclear transparency and nonproliferation and also to support the effort to develop a quantitative measure of nuclear transparency.