ABSTRACT
The technical and engineering strategy was elegant and achievable. The United States (US) has in operation or in the pipeline nuclear power plants representing more nuclear experience and commitment than any of the forty-two nations that have active nuclear programs. President Reagan has prodded people away from the policies of denial and toward policies of supply—toward providing world energy security with thorough and effective nuclear safeguards. Any international nonproliferation regime should be judged by its relevance to a single quantitative measure—its ability to prevent new entries into the nuclear weapons community. Nations can first be classified as nuclear-weapon states or nonnuclear-weapon states. Although the US is no longer a monopoly supplier of civilian nuclear technology, hardware, and fuel, in the late 1970s it tended to act like one. It tended to act unilaterally, outside the norms of nuclear trade codified by international instruments and treaties.
