All enrichment of uranium for nuclear power would be carried out by an international body to guard against nuclear proliferation, under a proposal to be considered by President Obama.

Professor John Holdren, the White House’s chief science adviser, said yesterday that placing uranium enrichment under international control could eliminate one of the main avenues by which rogue states and terrorists could obtain material for making atomic bombs.

While the plan is not White House policy, Professor Holdren said it was likely to be considered. “At the moment the Administration has not developed a policy on it,” he said. “But I think much of the world is now ready for this and I think it will be considered as a possible approach.”

Low-enriched uranium is used as fuel in several types of civilian nuclear-power plants, but the process for manufacturing it can be diverted to make weapons-grade uranium.

Speaking in London, where he was being admitted as a foreign member of the Royal Society, Professor Holdren said that insisting that all uranium was enriched under international auspices would eliminate opportunities to divert supplies for bomb-making.

He also said that reprocessing of nuclear fuel, by countries such as Britain and France, should end because it was a source of plutonium, the other nuclear material suitable for weapons.

“I personally would like to see uranium enrichment around the world put under international control, because if you ask yourself what are the proliferation points of vulnerability in the fuel cycle, there are really two,” Professor Holdren said.

“What we could do to lower the proliferation hazard is say that enrichment is by its nature such a proliferation-risky activity that we should not allow nations on their own to be doing it, and that all enrichment would take place in internationally-operated facilities in which multiple nations kept their eye on each other.

“We do of course have an International Atomic Energy Agency, and IAEA safeguards that attempt to deal with the problem of diversion from enrichment plants. But it is not a strong enough regime, in part because it is voluntary and countries that own their own enrichment plants can in the end kick out the inspectors.”

Professor Holdren, a physicist and climate scientist, has long been a campaigner against nuclear proliferation. In 1996, he accepted the Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs, an anti-proliferation group in which he is a leading figure.

He said: “At the moment the Administration has not developed a policy on it. I’ve been advocating this for 40 years, and for the first part of that period was largely laughed off the stage, the proposition being that countries will never give up unilateral control over an activity that’s as important to their economies. But I think much of the world is now ready for this and I think it will be considered by the Obama Administration as a possible approach.”

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