WASHINGTON, DC- Representative Edward J. Markey (D-MA), a senior Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee and Co-Chair of the Bipartisan Task Force on Nonproliferation, today released letters to the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency and the Secretary of Energy  asking for more information about a recent report that India has an illicit procurement program which supplies a secret part of its nuclear weapons program.  The report, entitled “India’s Gas Centrifuge Program: Stopping Illicit Procurement and the Leakage of Technical Centrifuge Know-How” was written by David Albright and Susan Basu of the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS).  David Albright is a former U.N. weapons inspector and President of ISIS.

“President Bush has said that India ‘is a non-proliferator’, but the ISIS report challenges India’s record.  When India conducted a ‘peaceful nuclear test’ in 1974, they sent a signal to the world that they would pursue a nuclear weapons program.  It now appears that India has been supplying its weapons program using backdoor methods that may contribute to the spread of sensitive nuclear-weapons related data,” said Rep. Markey.

The ISIS report alleges that India uses a public sector company – Indian Rare Earth’s (IRE) Ltd. of Mumbai - to outfit the Rare Materials Project, a uranium enrichment program, and to circumvent export controls in other countries.  According to the report, the IRE has not disclosed the true end use of the materials it obtained for India’s weapons program.  The report also alleges that the IRE advertised for bids from potential suppliers in Indian newspapers and sold detailed blueprints, manufacturing instructions, and specifications of items for India’s nuclear weapons program to prospective suppliers.

The letters Rep. Markey released today ask Porter Goss, the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, and Samuel Bodman, the Secretary of Energy, to answer a series of questions about issues raised in the ISIS report including:

• Will the Rare Materials Project (RMP) be placed under IAEA safeguards?  If not, how many bombs can India make from the enriched uranium produced through the RMP?
• Has IRE supplied the RMP by obtaining sensitive direct nuclear use and dual-use items from foreign and domestic suppliers?  Has IRE carried out procurements through trading companies that fail to disclose that the end user is an unsafeguarded uranium enrichment plant?  If so, please provide the names of these trading companies and whether any are currently under U.S. sanctions?
• Has IRE sold sensitive nuclear information to prospective suppliers?  If so, who are these suppliers?  Are any of these suppliers currently under U.S. sanctions?
• Is there any provision in the March 2, 2006 U.S.-India nuclear agreement that will ensure that India is not able to engage in further reverse engineering of sensitive dual-use products?  If not, why not?
• Does the March 2, 2006 agreement between the U.S. and India strengthen India’s export control system, of which the report states “India’s control system is poorly implemented and its export control officials are inexperienced”?  If not, why not? 

“The Administration claims that India has a good nonproliferation record, but how does it account for the type of activities described in the ISIS report?” asked Rep. Markey, adding that, “The U.S. should not be exporting nuclear fuel and technology to India without fully investigating India’s non-proliferation record.  I hope that these allegations will be taken seriously by Congress and the Administration before any exemptions are made to U.S. law that would allow nuclear exports to India.”

In December 2005, Rep. Markey introduced House Concurrent Resolution 318, a bipartisan resolution which expresses concern regarding nuclear proliferation with respect to the proposed full civilian nuclear cooperation with India. 

For more information about Rep. Markey’s work on nonproliferation, copies of the letters he released today, and a copy of the ISIS report, see http://markey.house.gov

 Copy of ISIS Report (198.35 KB)
 Copy of Letter to Director Goss (4/11/06) (145.70 KB)
 Copy of Letter to Secretary Bodman (4/11/06) (146.69 KB)