From its very inception the quota system was totally impossible of
realization. Today it is likely to prove a snare and a delusion, giving
a false sense of security, since it could not guarantee against the
clandestine production of at least one H-bomb a year. The plutonium for
the trigger could be produced in hidden small reactors, while the
deuterium and tritium could be produced in other small plants that could
be equally hidden. As we have seen, tritium production does not even
require a nuclear reactor.
Like the “quota system,” the system of “stages” has also become
completely out of date, since it was predicated on the control system
taking effect before Russia developed her own atomic bombs or had built
her own nuclear reactors. Today there is no longer any logical reason
for any stages, since any delay would make effective control more
difficult. Even today, if an international agency were to take over
stockpiles, it could never be certain that considerable amounts had not
been hidden away. In other words, even if the UN plan were to be adopted
today, it would not give security against a surprise atomic attack,
which is the very purpose of the plan.
14. HOW DOES THE H-BOMB BEAR UPON RESEARCH TO BE PERFORMED BY THE UNITED
NATIONS CONTROL AGENCY?
Under the United Nations plan, individual nations would be forbidden to
engage in atomic weapons research, but such research would be performed
by the world control agency itself, as a means of keeping it at the
forefront of knowledge in this field and thereby enabling it to detect
violations which might otherwise pass unnoticed through ignorance. Is
research upon H-bombs so dangerous that not even the world control
agency should be allowed to undertake it?