DEVELOPING STATE-LEVEL SAFEGUARDS APPROACHES

The IAEA’s Department of Safeguards has embarked on an important new initiative to more fully develop and apply the State-level concept for safeguards implementation. Under this concept the IAEA makes use of all safeguards-relevant information available in order to focus and prioritize its safeguards activities for a State. For several years the IAEA has been pursuing this concept in developing safeguards approaches for States with comprehensive safeguards agreements and additional protocols in force for which it has been able to draw the broader safeguards conclusion that all nuclear material has remained in peaceful activities. However, some of those approaches have applied generic safeguards criteria dictating the level and frequency of activities aimed at verifying declared nuclear material. Experience in implementing safeguards has indicated that, by applying a criteria-based approach, safeguards resources are not always being directed to areas of the greatest proliferation risk. In order to ensure that safeguards implementation is more adaptable and more focused on those areas of greatest concern, the IAEA is evolving the State-level concept and developing customized safeguards approaches for all States. In order to allow for differentiation while ensuring non-discrimination, the IAEA, as a matter of priority, is developing guidance that will be used to design State-level safeguards approaches. Development of this guidance began in earnest in mid-2011 with a view to beginning its implementation in 2012 and having State-level approaches in place for all States by 2014. The approach involves the use of all safeguards-relevant information on a State in identifying potential paths for the acquisition of weapons-usable nuclear material, establishing and prioritizing safeguards technical objectives, and identifying safeguards measures to meet those objectives. Important contributions to these determinations are factors specific to the State that may affect the way in which safeguards are implemented for that State. This paper will describe key elements of the guidance for designing State-level approaches under the evolving State-level concept.