SCOPE FOR INDUSTRY SELF-REGULATION UNDER EXISTING NUCLEAR EXPORT CONTROL AND PHYSICAL PROTECTION REQUIREMENTS AND GUIDANCE

To a substantial degree, international instruments and national laws and regulations are in place to prevent access to the means of acquiring nuclear or radiological weapons. However, with the expected global increase in trade of nuclear, radiological, and dual-use commodities, existing government regulatory infrastructures may not suffice. The private sector may be able to help stem potential proliferation by taking a more proactive role in controlling exports and in protecting nuclear, radiological, and dual-use commodities in use, storage, and transport. A short-hand term for such a proactive role is “self-regulation”, defined here to mean a systematic voluntary program undertaken by an industry or by individual companies to anticicpate, implement, or supplement for regulatory requirements in a given field, generally through the adoption of best practices. This paper reports on work that is part of a larger project aimed at developing one or more models for self-regulation in export control and physical protection. It is intended to serve as a resource for that larger effort by assessing the compatibility of self-regulation with current export control and physical protection requirements. Specifically, the paper summarizes the legal framework for export control and physical protection at the international and national levels, in the case of the latter using the United States as an example; defines several general approaches that self-regulation could take; assesses the compatibility of these approaches with the current legal framework; and offers conclusions about the most promising ways in which self-regulation could make a significant contribution to export control and physical protection.