Tools and Methodologies to Support Implementation of the IAEA’s Additional Protocol

In 1997, the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA’s) Board of Governors approved the Model Additional Protocol (AP). As of May 19, 2017, 129 countries2 have entered the AP into force, establishing the AP as an indispensable part of the IAEA’s verification regime. Once a country enters the AP into force, it is required to provide its initial AP declaration to the IAEA within 180 calendar days, annual updates by May 15th of each year thereafter, and quarterly reports on exports of equipment and non-nuclear materials listed in Annex II of the AP. The IAEA and motivated States have provided training and support to countries to help them in implementing the AP and making their AP declarations. It is essential that a State understand what must be declared under the AP and then submit timely declarations to enable the IAEA to verify that a State’s reporting is correct and complete. A number of software tools and methodologies have been developed to help States identify potentially declarable activities, understand what must be declared under the AP, and then provide correct, complete, and timely declarations to the IAEA. One of the main tools is the updated Protocol Reporter 3.0, which was released in 2016. This redesigned software provides a robust platform that allows a State to capture and manage information about its declarable locations, material, and activities and submit this information to the IAEA. In addition, other methodologies and tools such as open source research and the AP Declaration Helper provide information to support identification of potentially declarable activities in the country and how to analyze those activities to determine if they should be declared under the AP. This paper describes how these methodologies and tools promote effective implementation of the AP.