Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory's Contribution to U.S. Support of International Safeguards

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) has been supporting international safeguards for four decades through various U.S. government initiatives, including the U.S. Program of Technical Assistance to IAEA Safeguards (POTAS) and recent efforts under the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)’s Next Generation Safeguards Initiative (NGSI). LLNL contributes to all sub-programs of NGSI: Safeguards Policy, Concepts and Approaches; Safeguards Technology Development; the International Nuclear Safeguards Engagement Program (INSEP); and Human Capital Development (HCD). In addition to its NGSI contributions, LLNL participates in a range of other activities that further support and strengthen international safeguards. LLNL is one of four U.S. DOE laboratories certified to perform bulk analysis of safeguards environmental swipe samples as part of the IAEA’s Network of Analytical Laboratories (NWAL). The Laboratory also is engaged in efforts to establish nuclear forensics libraries, including through the development of a database that the IAEA can use to predict the origin of uranium source materials based on their detailed chemical and isotopic signatures. We also have provided consultants to support the IAEA’s capabilities in open-source information analysis. The paper will review LLNL’s current activities to support NGSI efforts, focusing in particular on the extensive education and training offered by LLNL in the area of international safeguards, and will discuss its contributions in other important technical areas.