REVISING THE CPPNM Challenges and constraints

Following the work of a previously convened experts meeting, a group of legal and technical experts has been convened in December 2001 by the Director General of the IAEA in order to prepare a draft amendment to the Convention on the Physical Protection of Nuclear Materials (CPPNM). The task for this group was to widen the scope of the CPPNM and to strengthen its measures, while staying inside the constraints established by the previous experts meeting. The group worked seven weeks in six meetings in Vienna, and produced its final report in March 2003. All along this work period, a number of key questions were addressed by the group, ranging from the implementation of fundamental principles of physical protection, to the criminalisation of offences to nuclear materials and nuclear facilities, and from international law, to cooperation in the case of sabotage of nuclear facilities. The way this experts group navigated in between constraints and challenges to address these key questions, with the objective to strengthen physical protection worldwide, is presented in this paper.