AMERICAN taxpayers are giving Russian scientists millions of dollars while
they continue to build weapons of mass destruction, claims Congress鈥檚 official
watchdog, the General Accounting Office (GAO).
With an annual budget of more than $20 million, the Department of
Energy鈥檚 Initiatives for Proliferation Prevention (IPP) scheme is designed to
employ weapons scientists on peaceful commercial projects
(This Week, 3 October 1998, p 22).
But according to a GAO report released last week, half of the
former Soviet scientists on the IPP payroll are still plugging away at nuclear
weapons research. And many of the 鈥渃ivilian鈥� technologies they are
developing鈥攕uch as novel materials to absorb electromagnetic
radiation鈥攁re just as likely to find a home with the military.
Leonard Spector, director of the energy department鈥檚 Office of Arms Control
and Non-Proliferation, argues that the GAO鈥檚 criticism is unfair: the IPP was
never intended to stop the Russians鈥� nuclear weapons research completely, he
says. 鈥淲e get a good chunk of their time, but we don鈥檛 occupy them 24 hours a
day and every brain cell.鈥� Spector adds that projects are carefully vetted to
exclude those that might undermine US national security.
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Frank Von Hippel, an expert in weapons proliferation at Princeton University
in New Jersey, also feels that the GAO is exaggerating the security threat posed
by the IPP scheme. 鈥淩eally, it鈥檚 almost Cold War thinking,鈥� he says. 鈥淩ussia is
flat on its back now. They鈥檙e falling apart.鈥�
However, Von Hippel agrees that the IPP has a serious weakness: finding a
commercial home for the technologies it is developing. 鈥淭here really has been a
problem with the programme,鈥� he says. 鈥淭hey have gone out looking for
technologies, but the next step鈥攇etting good connections between US
industries and Russian institutes鈥攊s not as efficient.鈥�