Reaching Critical Will

Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT)

Conference on Disarmament

General Assembly First Committee

UN Disarmament Commission

Special Session on Disarmament

Model Nuclear Inventory 2007
Democratic Republic of Congo

Location and capability of nuclear facilities
Nuclear activities
International non-proliferation efforts
Positions taken in international fora on various issues of disarmament

1. Location and Capability of Nuclear Facilities

Although the Democratic Republic of Congo has no nuclear power program, its uranium resources have been used by other countries pursuing nuclear weapons programs. During the Cold War, large parts of the United States’ uranium supply were imported from the Belgian Congo. Under the Belgian colonial rule, the Shinkolobwe mine provided uranium for bombs dropped by the US on Nagasaki and Hiroshima.
http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/world/congo/

Power Reactors: 0

Research Reactors
Operational: 1
Shut Down: 1
Decommissioned: 0
Under Construction: 0
Planned: 0
http://www.iaea.or.at/worldatom/rrdb/

Uranium Mines
Shinkolobwe (Shaba province)-decommissioned, though still used for cobalt and copper compounds mining.
http://www.antenna.nl/wise/uranium/uddafr.html#CD

Since 1997, 6000 miners have been entering the former Shinkolobwe mine site each day without authorization. The original mine has been flooded and cemented, though these illegal miners have excavated a huge open pit next to the original mine. While most of the miners are interested in cobalt, uranium could also be extracted from the ore. In the absence of control over possible uranium extraction, the DR Congo has faced significant international pressure to regain control over the mine site. In January 2004, President Joseph Kabila decided to interdict access to the mine site, yet with no apparent results. In July 2004 at least eight miners digging the former Shinkolobwe mine illegally were killed when the mine collapsed.

For years now, Congo has been involved in the illegal transfer and transport of radioactive materials. In March 2004, Congolese authorities seized radioactive shipments of uranium smuggled into the country illegally, bypassing international regulations and violating international conventions. According to Reuters, on July 20, 2006, a team of U.N. investigators monitoring a U.N. arms embargo on the Democratic Republic of Congo said they found ample signs of "artisan mining" by small groups of private individuals. Local police and residents told them "local agents of the mining police and of the National Intelligence Agency not only encourage but also charge fees from the miners," the investigators said in their report to the U.N. Security Council.
http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/24428/story.htm
http://www.antenna.nl/wise/uranium/udec.html#SHINKOLOBWE

2. Nuclear Activities and Cooperation

Nuclear Research Centers
Commissariat des Sciences Nucleaires, Kinshasa
Commissariat general a l’energie atomique, Kinshasa
http://www.iaea.org/inis/ws/research_institutes/congo.html

Nuclear Cooperation
North Korea, Iraq: Reports have surfaced that North Korea and Iraq are trying to re-open Shinkolobwe to obtain uranium, but these remain unconfirmed. In August 1999, it was reported that the DR Congo was suspected of trying to re-open the Shinkolobwe uranium mine with help from North Korea. Mining engineers from North Korea arrived in 1999 but were asked to leave under pressure from the US. http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/world/congo/

3. International Nonproliferation Efforts

Treaties Signed and Ratified, Date of Deposit
Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, 28 September 2004
Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, 4 August 1970
Treaty of Pelindaba, signed 11 April 1996 (not yet ratified)

DRC ratified the IAEA Additional Protocol on 9 April 2003.

Multilateral Groups
Conference on Disarmament

4. Positions Taken in International Fora on Various Issues of Nuclear Disarmament

Disarmament: “Many delegations before mine expressed serious preoccupations about the progress of disarmament and the threat of weapons of massive destruction to humanity, 25 years after the first special session of the General Assembly devoted to disarmament. They have also noted the necessity to again start work in the Conference on Disarmament, the only multilateral framework for negotiations as regards disarmament which, for the fifth consecutive year, still did not adopt its program of work. We . . . say clearly that the objectives of disarmament in general are far from being reached . . . In an international context, with increasing threats to international peace and security, adhesion to the international disarmament instruments appears vital for all.” – Statement by Mr. Luc Joseph Okio to the 58th Session of the General Assembly First Committee on Disarmament and International Security, 15 October 2003. http://www.reachingcriticalwill.org/political/1com/1com03/genstate03/drc.pdf