The 3S Concept - the Role of ESARDA

The importance of the 3S concept has already been recognized from legislative point of view: in helping to avoid gaps, overlaps and inconsistencies in the legal framework. In the broad sense the fundamental objective of nuclear safety, security and safeguards is to protect the public and the environment from the harmful effects of ionizing radiation entailing the various applications of nuclear energy. The harmful effects may appear through three major ways: through incidents and accidents, through sabotage acts against nuclear facilities, nuclear and other radioactive materials, and through malevolent use thereof. The first way is supervised by nuclear safety, the second one by nuclear security, while the third one is supervised by nuclear safeguards and security together. The actions aiming to prevent the appearance of harmful effects through the malevolent use of nuclear and other radioactive materials can be divided to three main areas both under security and safeguards. The security and safeguards actions under such areas (namely prevention, detection and response) are similar even if relevant differences can also be revealed. The paper will highlight some of the technical aspects of the 3S concept and the possible contribution to this field by ESARDA.