1. National and international controls and bodies

1.1 Nature and organization of controls

The aim of national and international controls is to ensure that states or industrial groups do not divert radioactive material for peaceful civilian use to strictly military purposes.

The nature of these controls is different for the five so-called weapons states – i.e. those possessing and having detonated an atomic bomb before January 1 ^er 1967 (the United Kingdom, the United States, the Russian Federation, China and France) – from the other states that have ratified the Non-Proliferation Treaty.

As the following paragraphs explain, not all control bodies operate at the same level, depending on the nature of the treaty in question.