ACTION REQUEST: REQUESTING EU JOINT DEMARCHE WITH

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 STATE 063369 SENSITIVE SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: ENRG PARM KNNP MX EUN SUBJECT: ACTION REQUEST: REQUESTING EU JOINT DEMARCHE WITH US ON CONVERSION OF MEXICAN NUCLEAR REACTOR REF: 07 STATE 42588 ¶1. (U) This cable is an action request. Please see paragraph 4 below. ¶2. (SBU) BACKGROUND: For several years the USG has sought to persuade the Government of Mexico (GOM) to fulfill its pledge under the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (SPP) to convert a single HEU (Highly Enriched Uranium)-fueled nuclear research reactor to LEU (Low Enriched Uranium). Washington sent a formal demarche in April 2007 (reftel),with the message being reinforced by visits in 2008 by Chairman Klein of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and Amb. Schulte from UNVIE. Embassy Mexico City has engaged on this issue for years, but the GOM bureaucracy has been unresponsive to requests for a decision, or even for a point of contact for the decision-making process. At times the GOM has claimed that, in order to make a decision, it must carve an exception out of a provision in the Mexican constitution, but it has not been willing to address how this might be done. ¶3. (SBU) BACKGROUND CONTINUED: Both the USG and the European Union strongly support conversion of research reactors from HEU to LEU as one means of countering terrorist efforts to acquire nuclear materials that could be used in an improvised nuclear device. As part of our wider efforts to improve and expand U.S.-EU cooperation on the whole range of nonproliferation issues, we would like to request that the EU Presidency and the EU Commission participate in a joint demarche with us to appropriate GOM interlocutors in Mexico City. (Note: The USG is also cooperating with about 40 other countries worldwide to convert research reactors from HEU to LEU under the Global Threat Reduction Initiative (GTRI),run by the Department of Energy/National Nuclear Security Administration (DOE/NNSA). To date nearly 60 such reactors have been converted, including over a dozen in the United States itself. GTRI's goal is to complete the conversion worldwide of 129 such reactors in total by 2018 and is cooperating with Russia, France, the IAEA and others in leading this effort. A significant portion of the remaining reactors are awaiting the development or certification of advanced LEU fuel to enable their conversion; Mexico's TRIGA reactor, however, is among those for which qualified LEU fuel already exists, and is thus high on the priority list for near-term conversion. End Note) ¶4. (U) ACTION REQUEST: USEU and Embassy Ljubljana are requested to approach appropriate interlocutors in the EU Commission and the Slovenian EU Presidency and deliver the following points requesting the joint U.S.-EU demarche in Mexico City. (Note: As Slovenia does not have an embassy in Mexico, we presume that it would be the French embassy there that would actually represent the EU Presidency in a joint U.S.-EU demarche.) BEGIN NON-PAPER TEXT --Both the United States and the European Union support the conversion of nuclear reactors from HEU to LEU, wherever this can be done with existing LEU fuels or fuels being developed that can meet the needs of the reactor. --Under the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (SPP),the Government of Mexico has committed to the United States and Canada to convert the TRIGA-III HEU-fueled reactor at Mexico,s Instituto Nacional de Investigaciones Nucleares (ININ) to LEU by 2009, which can be done using an existing type of LEU fuel. --A similar reactor in the United States (at Texas A&M University) was converted in the fall of 2006, and the process was very successful. --Unfortunately, the Mexican government has been unresponsive to requests to authorize formally ININ to begin the conversion, and has not designated a point of contact for the decision-making process. --As part of our efforts to strengthen and expand U.S.-EU cooperation on the whole range of nonproliferation issues, we would like to request the EU Presidency and the EU Commission STATE 00063369 002 OF 002 to register with the Mexican government their interest in seeing the risk of nuclear proliferation and of nuclear terrorism reduced, and our joint interest in Mexico,s fulfillment of its SPP commitments. We are requesting that the EU Commission and Presidency join our Embassy in Mexico City in a joint demarche to urge the Mexican government to take whatever steps necessary to reach a formal decision to convert the ININ reactor and then to proceed with the conversion. -- The U.S. Department of Energy's Global Threat Reduction Program has funds already allocated to support such conversions. If the Mexicans would not want the Energy Department's program to fund the conversion directly, it can be funded in cooperation with IAEA programs well known to the Mexican government. END NON-PAPER TEXT RICE