IMPLEMENTATION OF INTEGRATED SAFEGUARDS IN THE EUROPEAN UNION: CURRENT STATUS AND PLANS FOR THE FUTURE

Pursuant to the Safeguards Agreement published in INFCIRC/193, the IAEA and the European Atomic Energy Community (EURATOM) implement safeguards in connection with the Treaty on the Non- Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) in the Non-Nuclear Weapon States (NNWS) of the European Union (EU). The New Partnership Approach (NPA), agreed in 1992, resulted in closer and more efficient cooperation between the two organizations in the implementation of this Agreement and its Protocol. With the entry into force of the Additional Protocol to INFCIRC/193 (published in INFCIRC/193/Add.8), and the anticipated implementation of integrated safeguards in the EU NNWS, new cooperation arrangements needed to be established to ensure continued and effective cooperation between EURATOM, the IAEA and the States concerned. With the implementation of the Additional Protocol, the IAEA is able to draw the broader conclusion that all declared material remains in peaceful use (based on the IAEA's conclusion of the non-diversion of declared nuclear material and of the absence of undeclared nuclear material or activities in the State) as a necessary pre-condition to the implementation of integrated safeguards in the States. The IAEA has now reached this conclusion for the vast majority (March 2008) of EU States and has agreed with the European Commission at the High Level Liaison Committee meeting held in November 2007, on the main principles that will guide the introduction of integrated safeguards in EU States. Subsequently, the Low Level Liaison Committee has finalized “Integrated Safeguards Partnership Approaches” for four main types of facilities; Light Water Reactors, Research Reactors and Critical Assemblies, Spent Fuel Storage Facilities and Conversion and Fuel Fabrication Plants. A recent High Level Liaison Committee that met on 4 July 2008 has now approved those four approaches for provisional implementation and will meet again in December 2008 to decide, based on experience gathered in the meantime, if such approaches would be approved for final implementation. This paper describes the process followed to reach agreement on integrated safeguards principles where the particular needs and principles of two major organizations, the European Commission (“the Commission”) and the IAEA, had to be taken into account to reach a workable solution, satisfactory to all parties. It then describes, in a succinct manner, the arrangements reached.