Office of the Historian

152. National Security Decision Memorandum 2981

Washington, June 14, 1975.

TO

  • The Secretary of Defense
  • The Deputy Secretary of State
  • The Director, Arms Control and Disarmament Agency
  • The Administrator, Energy Research and Development Administration

SUBJECT

  • FRG Reactor Sale to the USSR

The President has reviewed the paper prepared by the NSC Verification Panel Working Group on the above subject, and has noted the views of the addressees. He has decided that:

—The U.S. is prepared to grant an exemption for the FRG reactor sale now pending before COCOM if the USSR will supply the uranium for the fuel and give a peaceful purposes assurance for the reactor and its produced plutonium.

—IAEA safeguards should be required in future COCOM cases for weapon states only where the nuclear export concerned would reasonably be expected to create a significant risk of diversion of fissionable materials to non-peaceful uses.

The President has also directed that the working group prepare a study of the prospects and implications of U.S. nuclear trade with Communist countries, with a view to reconciling our national and COCOM positions.

Henry A. Kissinger

  1. Summary: President Ford approved granting an exemption for the FRG reactor sale to the Soviet Union if the Soviet Union would supply the uranium and provide a peaceful purposes assurance. He also decided that IAEA safeguards should be required in future COCOM cases in specific instances. He directed the Verification Panel Working Group to prepare a study of the prospects and implications of nuclear trade with Communist countries.

    Source: Ford Library, National Security Council, Institutional Files—NSDMs, Box 69, Originals—NSDM 281 to NSDM 300. Secret. A copy was sent to Colby. Also published in Foreign Relations, 1969–1976, volume E–15, Part 2, Western Europe, 1973–1976, as Document 288. The Verification Panel Working Group options paper, “Proposed FRG Nuclear Reactor Sale to USSR,” is Document 151.

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