STRENGTHENING SAFEGUARDS IMPLEMENTATION IN STATES WITH SMALL QUANTITIES PROTOCOLS

In early 2005, the Secretariat of the International Atomic Energy Agency (‘the Agency’) launched an initiative to bring to the attention of Agency Member States the limitations that the then standard ‘Small Quantities Protocol’ (SQP) places on effective safeguards implementation. Introduced in 1971, SQPs were made available to States with little or no nuclear material and with no nuclear material in a ‘facility’. The original text of an SQP held in abeyance the implementation of important safeguards measures, including authority for the Agency (a) to require the submission of facility design information at an early stage, (b) to determine the status of any nuclear facilities and (c) to perform verification activities in the field. The Director General submitted a report on the issue to the Board of Governors for its meeting in June 2005 which identified options to overcome the limitations of SQPs. The Board recognised that the SQP, as then formulated, constituted a weakness of the safeguards system and that it must take a decision to resolve this important issue in a timely manner. Following extensive consultations with States, the Board decided, in September 2005, that SQPs should remain part of the Agency’s safeguards system subject to modifications in the standard text and changed criteria for an SQP. The Board also decided that, henceforth, it would approve only SQPs based on the revised standard text and modified criteria. The changes endorsed by the Board (i) make an SQP unavailable to a State with an existing or planned facility; (ii) require States to provide initial reports on nuclear material as well as early notification of a decision to construct or authorize construction of a nuclear facility; and (iii) allow for Agency inspections. The Board of Governors authorised the Director General to conclude exchanges of letters with all States with SQPs to give effect to these modifications and called upon the States concerned to conclude such exchanges of letters as soon as possible. The Secretariat has since written in this regard to all of the relevant States.