Current Trends in the Implementation of IAEA Safeguards

A practical goal, embodying the principle that a minimum amount of material is required in order to manufacture a nuclear explosive device, is that safeguards activities should enable the timely detection of the diversion of a significant quantity of nuclear material. It is important to note that the safeguards activities are not restricted to the International Atomic Energy Agency (the agency) but impose obligations on both state (and consequently on facility operators) and the agency. The beneficiaries are member states of the world community which have enhanced confidence in the competence and probity of states with safeguards agreements. Neither safeguards nor the nuclear industry have remained stationary. As new techniques have been developed, they have found applications, and as new challenges were encountered, the system has responded, for example, through improved measurements; through new or improved techniques for the operator, state or agency; and through new regulations. This paper details approaches, procedures and techniques developed for new complex nuclear facilities. Trends toward increasing efficiency and effectiveness, and developments leading to more automated analysis and collection of data and the development of nondestructive assay methods are examined. Also important are trends in the presentation of safeguards results to the states and the general public. It is concluded that the existence of new situations has been recognized and procedures, equipment and new techniques have been introduced. These introductions, whether by operator, state or agency, have enabled the agency to maintain the assurance of state compliance to the obligations of safeguards agreements, despite the increasing complexity of the nuclear industry and the increasing amounts of material to be safeguarded. The most significant trends now being considered, those requiring the provision of assurances that there are no undeclared activities or material which ought to have been declared under the terms of the agreement, pose new challenges to all parties. The high level of cooperation experienced in the current climate gives cause for confidence that the challenges will be overcome successfully.