SAFEGUARDS INTENSITY AS A FUNCTION OF SAFEGUARDS STATUS

A key characteristic of the IAEA’s traditional safeguards system was uniformity – essentially the Agency applied the same inspection activities at similar facilities in different states, with limited differentiation between states. In recent years an important conceptual advance has been recognition of the distinction between discrimination and differentiation. Differentiation underpins an essential element of integrated safeguards, the application of a state-level approach in safeguards implementation. Under a state-level approach safeguards intensity is adjusted to reflect the safeguards measures available to the IAEA for the particular state, the information available regarding the state, and relevant state-specific factors. Although initially conceived in the context of integrated safeguards, it is now accepted that a state-level approach is also appropriate for states that remain under traditional safeguards. While the state-level approach requires that each state be considered individually, there will be commonalities between states in similar circumstances, so broad groupings can be expected to emerge. In particular these groupings will reflect safeguards commitments – e.g. the safeguards measures available, and the degree of assurance possible, for a state with an additional protocol are significantly different to those under INFCIRC/153 alone, and this will be reflected in decisions on safeguards intensity. This paper discusses how safeguards intensity in a particular state will reflect the circumstances of that state.