A Review of U.S. Cooperation with the Government of Iraq on Implementation of the Additional Protocol

The United States Department of Energy (DOE) National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA), in support of U.S. policy for universal adherence of the Model Additional Protocol (AP), supports AP implementation assistance in many partner countries around the world. The AP, so called because it is additional to a state’s safeguards agreement, is an important component of the nonproliferation regime because it provides the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) with additional information and authority to investigate nuclear and nuclear-related activity in a country. In 2010, NNSA’s International Nuclear Safeguards and Engagement Program (INSEP), the lead coordinator for this assistance in the U.S. Government (USG), responded to a State Department request for AP implementation assistance for the Government of Iraq, which had signed and agreed to provisionally implement the AP in January 2010. In 2010 and 2011, INSEP led two workshops focused on providing technical consultations to stakeholders in the Government of Iraq (GOI) on implementing the Additional Protocol (AP). The first workshop was held over four days in May 2010 at the Cooperative Monitoring Center in Amman, Jordan; and the second was held over three days in April 2011 at the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna, Austria. During each workshop, U.S. participants from the DOE NNSA, representatives from Iraqi Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST), and officials from the IAEA were present.2 NNSA’s International Nuclear Safeguards and Engagement Program (INSEP) organized each event and invited subject-matter experts from the U.S. national laboratory complex3 and IAEA safeguards specialists to conduct the technical consultations. In December 2010, the United Nations, recognizing that the GOI had complied with nonproliferation-related Security Council requirements, including signature and provisional implementation of the AP, lifted sanctions levied against Iraq for 20 years. This paper provides a summary of events and observations covering the May 2010 and April 2011 workshops.