Final verbatim record of the Conference of the Eighteen-Nation Committee on Disarmament [Meeting 280]

ENDC/PV. 280:
14.
(Mr. Fisher, United States)
detonating nuclear bombs. Thus, the development of nuclear explosives for any purpose
by a State which does not now possess nuclear weapons would inevitably involve the
acquisition by that State of a nuclear weapons capability.
I should like to explore somewhat further the dileLama with which we are faced,
by viewing it in the perspective which the United States has gained by virtue of its
own experience in the field of peaceful nuclear explosions. For.any years the United
States has been carrying out extensive studies to develop peaceful applications of
nuclear explosions. However, we still have several difficult technical problems to
solve before we shall be able to demonstrate applications which are both technically
sound and economaically feasible.
The difficulties with which non-nuclear-weapon Powers would be faced in developing
useful nuclear explosions for peaceful purposes would be infinitely greater. They nay
be illustrated by the fact that the projects which appear to be of the greatest
interest -- nuclear earth-moving projects, such as digging canals or.building dams --
can be feasible only if highly-sophisticated thermonuclear devices are used. Fission-.
type. explosives are not practical for excavation, both because the radioactivity release
would be unacceptably high, and because fissionable material is too costly a source of
energy to make such a project economically feasible.
The United States' experience with developing nuclear explosives for peaceful
purposes both sharpens the dilemma with which we are faced and points to its resolution.
This experience has made it quite clear that. the development by a State not possessing.
nuclear weapons or peaceful nuclear explosives, and in particular, nuclear devices for
excavations, could not be justified as a matter of economics, in view of the fact that
such development is extremely costly in terms of scientific manpower, materials
consuLed and the capital investment required.
It seems to us, therefore, that the development of nuclear explosives for peaceful
applications by a State not already possessing nuclear weapons could hardly be
accepted by the world as involving peaceful purposes only. Such a development would
not be consistent with the purposes of a treaty designed to prevent the spread of.nuclear weapons. Therefore the restrictions of any non-proliferation treaty which is
negotiated should be applicable equally to nuclear weapons and to nuclear explosives
for peaceful purposes.