100 STATES ALLOW IAEA GREATER INSPECTION AUTHORITY.

This article reports that in August 2005, Honduras became the 100th State to sign the so-called an Additional Protocol to a Safeguards agreement with the United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Additional Protocols, reportedly, strengthen the IAEA's safeguards system by giving IAEA inspectors greater rights of access to information about a country's nuclear program and to nuclear sites. They also grant inspectors added authority to use advanced technologies to track that nuclear materials are not being diverted, and that there are no clandestine, proscribed nuclear activities in a State. The IAEA Director General, Mohamed ElBaradei, has referred to additional protocols as a sine qua non for effective verification and invited all States to conclude additional protocols. Additional Protocols grant the IAEA complementary inspection authority to that provided in underlying safeguards agreements, typically concluded pursuant to provisions of the global Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.