[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 43, Number 36 (Monday, September 10, 2007)]
[Pages 1180-1181]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Message to the Senate Transmitting an Amendment to the Convention on the 
Physical Protection of Nuclear Material

September 4, 2007

To the Senate of the United States:

    I transmit herewith for Senate advice and consent to ratification 
the Amendment to the Convention on the Physical Protection of Nuclear 
Material (the ``Amendment''). A conference of States Parties to the 
Convention on the Physical Protection of Nuclear Material, adopted on 
October 28, 1979, adopted the Amendment on July 8, 2005, at the 
International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna. I transmit also, for the 
information of the Senate, the Department of State report on the 
Amendment. Legislation necessary to implement the Amendment will be 
submitted to the Congress separately.
    The Amendment contains specific provisions to effect a coordinated 
international response to combating and preventing nuclear terrorism and 
ensuring global security. It will require each State Party to the 
Amendment to establish, implement, and maintain an appropriate physical 
protection regime applicable to nuclear material and nuclear facilities 
used for peaceful purposes. The aims of the regime are to protect such 
material against theft or other unlawful taking, to locate and rapidly 
recover missing or stolen material, to protect such material and 
facilities against sabotage, and to mitigate or minimize the 
radiological consequences of sabotage. The Amendment also provides a 
framework for cooperation among States Parties directed at preventing 
nuclear terrorism and ensuring punishment of offenders; contains 
provisions for protecting sensitive physical protection information; and 
adds new criminal offenses that each State Party must make punishable by 
law. States Parties must also either submit for prosecution or extradite 
any person within their jurisdictions alleged to have committed one of 
the offenses defined in the Convention, as amended.
    This Amendment is important in the campaign against international 
nuclear terrorism and nuclear proliferation. I recommend, therefore, 
that the Senate give early and favorable consideration to this 
Amendment, subject to the understandings described in the accompanying 
report of the Department of State.
                                                George W. Bush
 The White House,
 September 4, 2007.

Note: This message was released by the Office of the Press Secretary on 
September 6.

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