The United States Support Program: Meeting the Training Needs of the IAEA Department of Safeguards

Having begun in 1977, the United States Support Program (USSP) is the longest running Member State Support Program to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Department of Safeguards. The USSP is primarily funded through the U.S. Program of Technical Assistance to IAEA Safeguards (POTAS), with additional funding and in-kind support being contributed by the National Nuclear Security Administration and other government agencies. The USSP responds to formal requests from the IAEA for technical assistance to address IAEA safeguards and infrastructure needs. An important part of this assistance is in-kind support in the form of training. The USSP supports approximately 13 courses a year that address a wide range of topics from NDA techniques to communications skills. Some courses have a long history; for example, nearly all inspectors who joined the IAEA since 1980 have received instruction on nondestructive analysis techniques at Los Alamos National Laboratory in a course that is based on training provided to U.S. citizens from U.S. government agencies and the national laboratories. Other courses are created specially to meet the needs of the IAEA. For example, in 2017 the USSP supported the development, pilot run, and inaugural offering of the Plutonium Diversion Detection Training Course at Idaho National Laboratory. This paper reports on the history and current status of USSP supported training for the IAEA Department of Safeguards.