UN atomic head warns of ‘extreme danger’ as six new countries look to acquire their own nukes

He said a nuclear arms race was his ‘worst fear’

The head of the agency, Rafael Grossi, has expressed concern over talk of “friendly nuclear proliferation” in “a few important countries”.

In six countries without nuclear weapons, leaders have openly discussed developing their own arsenals.

This has led the UN's atomic agency to warn that the world is at risk of a fresh nuclear arms race.

Director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency has warned that some of the 191 signatories to the 1970 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) could begin breaching the pact.

According to Grossi, this could potentially trigger a “domino” effect in which nuclear weapons could be pursued by as many as twenty states.

Among the countries who have debated acquiring their own nuclear arsenals are Poland, South Korea and Japan.

Meanwhile, should global instability increase and NATO weaken, officials in Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Sweden have suggested they may consider doing so.

“There’s been a few important countries … in Europe, in Asia Minor, in the Far East that have mentioned [it] and where a public discussion is taking place about this possibility”, Grossi told The Telegraph in an interview published this week.

“There is talk about 'friendly proliferation'. There are all these things which fill me with concern because I believe that a world with 20 nuclear weapon states or more would be extremely dangerous”, he added.

He said a nuclear arms race was his "worst fear", adding: “At some point, we are going to see a crack in the system. And then we’ll have a domino [effect]. It is a very, very fragile position”, Grossi added, as he said that a nuclear arms race was his “worst fear”.

The only five countries in the world recognised by the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) as nuclear-weapon states are the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, France and China.

According to the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, of the world's more than 12,300 nuclear warheads, Russia holds 5459, the US 5277 and the UK 225.