USA to implement Additional Protocol

[Global Security Newswire, 20 December] President George Bush signed legislation on 19 December to facilitate the US-India nuclear cooperation deal which also brings closer the day international inspectors gain more access to American nuclear sites.  The Additional Protocol (AP) of the Nuclear non-Proliferation Treaty allows IAEA inspectors to make intrusive inspections into civilian nuclear sites to verify that material there is not being used in weapons programmes. The USA signed the AP in 1998 and that was approved by the Senate in 2004. However, to enact the AP's requirements, new regulations must be made and this legislation brings those changes closer. Officials said the AP could be in force in the USA within six months.