The Obama administration has told U.S. lawmakers that a nuclear cooperation deal with Vietnam is unlikely to include a promise not to enrich uranium.

The United States made a deal last year in which the United Arab Emirates pledged, in return for U.S. nuclear equipment and reactors, not to enrich uranium or extract plutonium.

Asked if the United States would agree to a deal that would allow Hanoi to keep its right to enrich, Crowley said: "If a country decides to pursue nuclear energy, and a country decides that it chooses to enrich on its own soil, then we would prospectively work with that country" to make sure its program would meet all international safeguards and work with the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency, the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Vietnamese officials say they also have signed nuclear energy cooperation agreements with Russia, China, France, South Korea, India and Argentina.

The Vietnam nuclear development was reported first by The Wall Street Journal.

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There are currently nine states that have successfully detonated nuclear weapons.
The 'official nuclear club', with nuke weapons:


Country - Warheads active/total - Year of first test - CTBT status

United States 2,468 / 9,600[3] 1945 ("Trinity") Signatory
Russia (former Soviet Union) 4,650 / 12,000[3] 1949 ("RDS-1") Ratifier
United Kingdom <160 / 225[3] 1952 ("Hurricane") Ratifier
France ~300 / 300[3] 1960 ("Gerboise Bleue") Ratifier
China ~180 / 240[3] 1964 ("596") Signatory Non-NPT nuclear powers
India n.a. / 60-80[3] 1974 ("Smiling Buddha") Non-signatory
Pakistan n.a. / 70-90[3] 1998 ("Chagai-I") Non-signatory
North Korea n.a. / <10[3] 2006 (2006 test) Non-signatory Undeclared nuclear powers
Israel n.a. / 80[3] possibly 1979 (See Vela Incident) Signatory


Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT):
bans all nuclear explosions in all environments, for military or civilian purposes.

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Argentina pursued a covert nuclear weapons program for many years, refused to accede to the NPT, and did not sign the Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in Latin America (the Tlatelolco Treaty). A gaseous diffusion enrichment plant was built. Construction of reprocessing facilities was pursued but was supposedly suspended in 1990; sites were developed for uranium conversion and for fuel fabrication. A missile development program was pursued. Argentina's nuclear program was supported by a number of countries: power reactors were supplied by Canada and West Germany, a heavy water plant was supplied by Switzerland, and the Soviet Union was another supplier of nuclear equipment. Hot cells operated from 1969-1972, with no international safeguards; figures on the amount of spent fuel treated in the hot cells vary greatly.

In 1992 Argentina constructed with Brazil a bilateral arrangement to place both countries' nuclear material and facilities under their mutual supervision, and signed along with Brazil a comprehensive safeguards agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency. On 24 March 1993 the Argentine Senate ratified the Treaty of Tlatelolco, moving Argentina one step closer to becoming the 25th country to join the 1967 agreement calling for a nuclear-free zone in Latin America and the Caribbean.

In February 1995 Argentina acceded to the NPT as a non-nuclear weapon state. The European Union said that Argentina's accession to the NPT confirms its commitment to nuclear non-proliferation, already demonstrated by the quadripartite agreement on nuclear safeguards concluded among Argentina, Brazil, ABACC (Argentinean-Brazilian Agency for Accounting and Control) and IAEA, and by the Treaty of Tlateloco.



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