U.S. Will Share Power Technology : Senate OKs Nuclear Pact With China

The Senate, moving quickly after months of objections by liberal senators, Thursday approved President Reagan’s long-delayed agreement to share nuclear power technology with China.

On a voice vote with neither debate nor opposition, senators cleared the way for U.S. firms to begin negotiating contracts to supply materials and equipment to China’s ambitious nuclear program.

A similar resolution is pending in the House. To block the agreement, both chambers would have to pass resolutions of disapproval by Dec. 11, the expiration date of a 90-day period in which Congress could veto the pact.

Critics Led by Cranston

The agreement, first initialed last year during President Reagan’s trip to China, had been held up because critics led by Sen. Alan Cranston (D-Calif.) feared that China would share its nuclear technology with Iran, Pakistan and other nations.

The stage for Thursday’s action, which occurred during a pause in the long-running Senate debate over farm legislation, was set last week in the Foreign Relations Committee, which added toughly worded restrictions to the agreement.

Overruling Administration objections on an 11-3 vote, the committee made any shipments of material or equipment under the pact conditional on Reagan’s receiving firm assurances that China would not divert fissionable material to any nation trying to assemble a bomb. Another restriction reserves to the United States the authority to refuse China permission to reprocess spent reactor fuel supplied under the agreement.

‘Bomb-Making Know-How’

Cranston charged in a statement last month that China had engaged in “the most egregious effort in history to export nuclear bomb-making know-how” to other countries. Despite Administration assurances that China had made some changes since the agreement was initialed, Cranston said, the Chinese had later “engaged in serious nuclear trade negotiations with, or actually has continued a series of nuclear exports” to Iran, Pakistan, South Africa, Argentina and Brazil.

But Thursday, following the Senate action, Cranston professed himself satisfied that the restrictions imposed by the Foreign Relations Committee have effectively closed the door on future Chinese dealing in U.S.-origin nuclear materials.

“We got what I wanted,” Cranston said. “I am satisfied we now have the safeguards we need.”

Cranston observed that Thursday’s quick action after the long delay was by unanimous consent of all senators. “Everyone concerned had an opportunity to object, and no one did,” he said.