Dual-use

Dual-use refers to a technology, a chemical, or a microorganism that has applications that are legal and peaceful, or illegal and a risk to the public. The term is commonly used in counterproliferation, but also is relevant to fields such as the drug trade.

The Chemical Weapons Convention, for example, has three Schedules of chemicals. Schedule I have few if any uses other than as chemical weapons, although it still may be legitimate for an approved laboratory to have small quantities, for the purpose of developing chemical weapon detectors and defenses. Schedule II have both weapons and non-weapon applications, with enough of a likelihood of weapons applicability that the proposed user must be checked carefully. Schedule III chemicals have substantial industrial applications, but still need to be monitored to be sure they are not diverted into illicit weapons programs.

Under the rules of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, there are two lists of chemicals that have legitimate uses, but also can be used in the manufacture of illicit drugs. Some of the List I compounds are quite specialized and have few applications outside medical research and legal manufacturing, or the production of drugs of abuse. Still, the list contains substances as common as iodine. List II contains chemicals that are used more in industry than in illicit drug manufacturing, such as acetone, hydrochloric acid and sulfuric acid.

In nuclear arms control, it was understood that certain materials could go into a reactor, but it would take inspection of the nuclear reactor to determine if the use was peaceful. Some components, such as the krytron, a switch for precisely timed pulses of electricity, are usually thought to be parts of the implosion system of a nuclear weapon, but also have applications in medical devices such as a lithotripter.

Biological dual-use materials are some of the most difficult to evaluate, since almost all organisms capable of being made into biological weapons also are diseases of humans or animals, and thus legitimate to have in a diagnostic laboratory. The only clear-cut exception would be Variola major, the smallpox virus; smallpox has been eradicated from the wild.