Washington, D.C. -- In response to the announcement by President George W. Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin that the United States and Russia will commence negotiations on a nuclear cooperation agreement, Representative Edward J. Markey (D-MA), Co-Chairman of the Bipartisan Task Force on Non-proliferation, today issued the following statement:

"While I welcome the commitment of President Bush and Russia's President Putin to strengthen efforts to combat nuclear terrorism and redouble efforts to halt the proliferation of nuclear weapons, I fear that the proposal to open discussions on a formal agreement for nuclear cooperation between the two countries could end up undermining nuclear nonproliferation efforts.

"The fact is that many of the nuclear materials Russia already has in its possession today are not properly secured.  International efforts to help prevent these materials from falling into the hands of terrorists have been woefully underfunded, and much more remains to be done to address this problem.

"It makes little sense to propose the creation of an expensive and untested new international nuclear enrichment and reprocessing system that will wind up sending Russia even more nuclear materials, when they still can't secure the left-overs from the Cold War.

"This proposed nuclear deal also seems to be aimed at trying to build legitimacy for the Bush Administration's controversial 'Global Nuclear Energy Partnership,' which reverses decades of U.S. policies aimed at discouraging reprocessing of nuclear waste that could result in the creation of bomb-grade plutonium.  While the Bush Administration claims that it will be developing 'proliferation-resistant' reprocessing technologies, some independent experts have raised serious questions about whether such technologies can be developed and deployed before the middle of the century.  If they cannot, will the U.S.-Russian deal wind up promoting conventional reprocessing techniques, which have proven to be both uneconomical and a serious proliferation risk? 

"Today's announcement also leaves unanswered a great many questions regarding the proposed nuclear deal with Russia.  We don't know yet whether the Russians will be willing to agree to the requirements of U.S. nonproliferation law, including prior U.S. consent before any nuclear material or technology can be transferred to third parties, proper safeguards and security at Russian nuclear facilities.  And given the fact that President Bush chose to eviscerate U.S. nonproliferation laws instead of asking India to follow them when he inked a nuclear cooperation deal with that country, what will stop Bush from opening up similar dangerous loopholes for Russia?

"We also don't know whether Russia will be willing to halt nuclear cooperation with Iran -- which would generally be barred under U.S. law since Iran is on the list of state sponsors of terrorism.

"I fear that President Bush's love for all things nuclear may be blinding him to the risks of proceeding down this path.  Today's deal may be a boon for the nuclear power industry, but it poses grave risks for  U.S. national security."