ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on how political and technological trends, together with past economic forecasts, have combined to make available the technology for developing nuclear bombs in small or large quantities. International treaties that aim to control the spread of nuclear weapons know-how can at best be described as only partially successful. Uranium is the fuel in all commercially proven reactors in use at the present time. The prospect of using nuclear power as an alternative source of energy has long been discussed in international circles, particularly for countries like India, Pakistan, Egypt or Brazil, which were assumed to lack any significant supplies of fossil fuel. Lower than expected rates of growth for energy consumption, coupled with higher capital costs for reactor building, have contributed to a shrinking of the world market for nuclear reactors. The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty remains the most important international attempt to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons.
