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The spread of nuclear weapons, fissile material, nuclear technology and information which can be applicable in weapon making, to those states which are not recognized as “Nuclear Weapon States” by the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty is called Nuclear Proliferation.

Many nation-states having nuclear power and also those states without nuclear weapons have opposed the proliferation of nuclear weapons or technology, by the fear that more countries with nuclear weapons may de-stabilize international or regional relations, or challenge the national sovereignty of states.

There are currently five major recognized Nuclear Weapons States namely U.S, U.K, Russia, France, China have signed the treaty of non proliferation. Four other states ,who accquire nuclear capability or nuclear weapons technology have not or ratified the NPT. These states are Pakistan, India, Israil and North korea.Only those countries that tested nuclear weapons before 1968 are recognised as a nuclear weapon states under NPT and all other states joining the treaty are formally rejected as a nuclear weapons states.

The United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Japan, and the USSR took research in the formation of nuclear weapons during second world war as a Military purpose. Two nuclear bombs made from uranium-235 and plutonium-239 were dropped on Japan’s Hiroshima and Nagasaki respectively in August 1945 by the United States who was the first and the only country to have used a nuclear weapon in war. With their loss during the war, Germany and Japan ceased to be involved in any nuclear weapon research. USSR become a nuclear weapon state in August 1949. The United Kingdom tested a nuclear weapon in October 1952. France was declared as a nuclear weapon state in 1960. The People’s Republic of China detonated a nuclear weapon in 1964. India exploded a nuclear device in 1974, and Pakistan tested her nuclear weapon in 1998. North Korea conducted a nuclear test in 2006.

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) after its founding by the United Nations in 1957 has promoted two missions: First the Agency made an effort to promote and spread internationally, the use of civilian nuclear energy; and second, it seeks to prevent, or at least detect, the diversion of civilian nuclear energy to nuclear weapons, nuclear explosive devices or purposes unknown. The IAEA now operates a safeguards system as specified under Article III of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) of 1968, which aims to ensure that civil stocks of uranium, plutonium, as well as facilities and technologies associated with these nuclear materials, are used only for peaceful purposes and do not contribute in any way to proliferation or nuclear weapons programs.