Euratom was divided into two halves. There was a supply division, based in Brussels, which had the job of acquiring uranium supplies for countries which belonged to the EEC, and there was a safeguards division, then in the process of moving from Belgium to Luxembourg, which was supposed to monitor movements of uranium and spot any diversions. Together they were charged with controlling the use of nuclear materials in Europe, but they laboured under appalling limitations.

Euratom was formed at the same time as the EEC in 1957 in the hope that it would contribute to the political unification of Europe. That hope was soon dispelled. Euratom could only work if the member countries surrendered some of their sovereignity for the greater good of the whole. They were not prepared to do so.

Squabbles continually erupted among the six members about what role Euratom ought to play. It was above all France, the EEC's leading nuclear nation, who did her best to wreck Euratom, treating it with ill-concealed comtempt. In 1962 France managed to install Pierre Chatenet as Euratom's president. Chatenet announced that Euratom should limit itself to collecting and centralizing information. In 1963 France submitted a memorandum complaining that Euratom was spendthrift and overambitious, and voted against the next Euratom budget. Any controls Euratom tried to enforce unfailingly violated somebody's national rights and were accordingly ignored. In December 1967 Euratom torn by constant dissent, almost ceased to exist. The six members failed to agree in its next five-year plan and only after vigorous efforts by West Germany did they vote to continue Euratom's budget, and thus the agency itself, on a year-to-year basis. By 1968 Euratom was a cripple. One curious result of the dissension inside Euratom was that the safeguards people had no say over deals such as the one that SGM and Asmara had in mind. What responsibility there was for vetting such transactions lay with the supply division, and in particular with Felix Oboussier, a personable German who was not by training a nuclear expert, but a lawyer.

Tratto da: The Plumbat Affair, Davemport, Eddy, Gillman, André Deutsch Ltd, 1978