Some Reflections on SAGSI’s Contributions to Strengthened Safeguards

In September 1992, after the IAEA Board of Governors had adopted the first safeguards strengthening measures in the wake of the 1991 Gulf War and had discussed the role for SAGSI in further improving the effectiveness and efficiency of safeguards, the Director General of the IAEA decided to expand SAGSI. In the years after this expansion SAGSI played an important role in formulating some of the key concepts for strengthened safeguards, in particular for what became the Model Additional Protocol. However, some of the early thinking went into dead alleys. The paper reviews some of these developments in the period 1992-1998, the period in which the author was a member of SAGSI. The paper also reviews SAGSI’s advice on the role new technology could play in the strengthened safeguards regime. Finally the author looks back on SAGSI’s contributions from his present position as IAEA staff member.