Implementation of Euratom Safeguards: internal and external state of play

The nuclear safeguards landscape is constantly evolving, both at political and technological level, offering challenges, as well as opportunities to Euratom. Continuous effort is undertaken for improvement of effectiveness and efficiency of safeguards in Europe. It aims to identify, and implements all possible means and measures for improving the quality and reliability of Euratom's verification results and conclusions. The European Commission's (EC) Safeguards Services implement this at both internal and external level. On the internal side, the Nuclear Safeguards directorate has decided to implement an Integrated Management System (IMS) for its activities. The system integrates the requirements of the Internal Control standards of the European Commission with the requirements of an ISO 9001 based quality management system (QMS). The IMS will allow for the continual improvement of nuclear safeguards processes taking into account the input of all actors. Its QMS components will ensure transparency of all processes so that EU Member States and the IAEA can have an appropriate level of confidence in the quality of the directorate's safeguards results. On the external side, the EC commonly implements safeguards together with the IAEA based on three safeguards agreements. With the introduction of IAEA integrated safeguards completed at the beginning of 2010, a revised framework of partnership approaches for the main types of facilities, complemented by a set of technical support documents, was developed and implemented. In light of the Agency’s move to fully implement the State-level concept, the various elements of the New Partnership Approach (NPA), which was agreed in 1992, are being scrutinized to maximize the effectiveness and efficiency of common safeguards. The Senior Management of the IAEA and the EC agreed in June 2011 to establish an “IAEA/EC Reflection Group”. The Group was tasked with reviewing existing cooperation arrangements between the IAEA and the EC to identify further possibilities for, and the conditions under which, enhanced cooperation and additional arrangements could allow the IAEA to make better use of the Euratom safeguards system. The EC considers that the IAEA State-level concept might profit from the development of a complementary regional level concept or specific regional level factors.