Topic: Emerging Nuclear States and the Global Nuclear Framework
Country: Uruguay
Delegate Name: Mason Adler
School: Vicksburg High School
Topic page: background guide and all position papers All Uruguay position papers GLIMUN 2016 committees
Uruguay detests nuclear weapons in all forms and in 2014 Uruguay became a signatory state to the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (henceforth ICAN). ICAN aspires to an outright ban of nuclear warheads, a goal which the United Nations General Assembly has resolved to achieve in 2017. Uruguay believes that this will be a milestone, because nuclear weapons are a threat so long as they exist, regardless of the hands that the weapons are in. Uruguay has vehemently opposed both the production and proliferation of nuclear weapons, being a state party to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty since 1970 and a signatory to the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. Uruguay is also part of the Treaty of Tlatelolco, a Latin American and Caribbean nuclear-weapon-free-zone.
Uruguay does not have any nuclear power facilities, although they did have a small reactor until 1985, when evidence of corrosion was detected. The next year, the accidents at Chernobyl and Goiânia, which significantly swayed public opinion against nuclear energy. The Uruguayan parliament finally passed a bill in 1997 (law 16.832) outlawing the construction and operation of nuclear power plants, although public opinion is divided on this matter as of late and there are arguments for the repeal of this law, but the majority of Uruguayans see no need for nuclear power because it is hazardous and unnecessary, as 95% of Uruguay’s electricity comes from renewable sources. Despite this, the fact still remains that nuclear energy is a clean and extremely efficient method of producing energy for large populations of people, a truth that many Uruguayans have come to realize after the ominous 2004 Argentine Energy Crisis.
