Year
2016
Abstract
The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies (CNS) at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies (MIIS) at Monterey actively support U.S. Department of Energy National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) Next Generation Safeguards Initiative (NGSI) efforts to recruit and train the next generation of nuclear safeguards experts. Together, with support from the NGSI Human Capital Development (HCD) program, LLNL and CNS/MIIS co-host the International Nuclear Safeguards Policy Summer Course. The week-long, tuition free course held at MIIS examines the historical evolution of the legal and institutional foundations of international safeguards, approaches and technologies for safeguards implementation, and current and recent challenges to the international safeguards systems through the use of case studies. The course also features an exercise, focusing in the last several years on safeguards issues in Iran, that aims to elucidate from a technical safeguards standpoint the numerous safeguards issues the Iran cases illustrates, as well as how these issues were dealt with by the non-proliferation regime at a policy level. The paper reviews the evolution of the course since its launch in 2008, the current goals and content of the course, lessons learned, and its continuing role in training the next generation of safeguards experts.