ABSTRACT
We should harbor no illusions about how effective improved institutions can be if weapon-usable material is widely circulating in commerce throughout the world, but improved institutions might help to avert dire outcomes. Such international arrangements might be established through bilateral agreements for the return of spent fuel, regional agreements for the management of spent fuel and waste or the assumption of the management function by either the IAEA or a new international institution invested specifically with this responsibility. But simply to attach the labels "international" or "multinational" to the conduct of such dangerous activities does not necessarily imply much of a political barrier. The issue is not whether agreements on fuel-cycle limitations would prevent an advanced industrial country at the level of a Japan or a Germany from being able to acquire nuclear explosives.
