demonstrated by Iraq. A major Carnegie Endowment International Peace (CEIP) study⁴⁸ examines the evidence of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction and the decision to go to war by the George W. Bush administration. A key conclusion of that study was that there was a very positive impact on constraining the ability of Saddam Hussein’s attempt to reconstitute his weapons program through the use of technology and export controls throughout the 1990s.

That said, Gottemoeller agreed with the view that technology control should not be a barrier to safety and security cooperative endeavors. The conclusion of a small working group of eminent experts convened in 2003 by CEIP was that indeed the legal authority for security and safety cooperation was already in place and there should be no barrier to pursuing such cooperation. However, she added, this opinion was not fully accepted by some of those inside government, and she expressed the hope that this will be an area where there can be very wide ranging cooperation between India and the United States.

Kumar Patel concluded the discussion by observing that while there are broad differences of opinion on the real threats to nuclear power plants and nuclear facilities, one significant incident could have enormous social and physical consequences; there would be nuclear fallout, but also societal fallout, which may make nuclear power plants undesirable all over the world. This is a very significant issue and requires greater thought. As Branscomb noted, the threats will come from smart people using commonly available materials. We need to focus on how we deal with the problem of protecting nuclear facilities from both inside and outside threats.