Timeline

1998 - 2003

1998 President Clinton certifies that China supports international nuclear non-proliferation efforts, paving the way for the sale of U.S. nuclear technology to that country

1998 The French government announces its decision to shut down the world's largest fast-breeder nuclear reactor, the Superphenix, located at Creys-Malville, near the Swiss border. The dismantling of the reactor is scheduled to begin in 2005

1999 India and Pakistan sign a number of agreements designed to reduce tensions between the two countries that increased after nuclear tests were conducted in May 1998

2001 President George W. Bush serves formal notice to Russia that the US is withdrawing from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty and proceeding with plans to develop and deploy the controversial National Missile Defense (NMD) system prohibited by the treaty

2002 The United Nations monitors, led by U.N. chief inspector Hans Blix and Mohamed El Baradei of the International Atomic Energy Agency, resume Iraqi weapons inspections

2002 North Korea orders the expulsion of IAEA weapons inspectors and announces that it will reactivate a facility capable of extracting weapons-grade plutonium from spent fuel rods

2003 The International Atomic Energy Agency announces that Iran has nearly completed its uranium enrichment plant. Iran’s political leaders continue to agree that their country has the right to develop nuclear weapons

*Source: US dept. of energy office of environmental management & nuclearfiles.org