A Canadian Perspective on the IAEA’s State-level Concept

The IAEA’s State-level Concept (SLC) has been applied in Canada since 2005, after Canada first attained the broader conclusion. The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC), Canada’s nuclear regulatory agency and the safeguards authority in Canada, thus has nearly eight years of experience in implementing the SLC and is well-placed to offer thoughts on this concept. The IAEA is currently in the process of applying the SLC across all Member States, regardless of the safeguards agreements which they have in force. The CNSC fully supports this initiative as a natural evolution of the safeguards system in response to external pressures such as a ‘no real growth’ budget and recent cases of undeclared activities. The IAEA’s transition from checklist-based traditional safeguards to the SLC stands to enhance the IAEA’s ability to deliver efficient, effective and non-discriminatory safeguards across all States. The SLC offers gains in efficiency as it allows an increase in safeguards effort where warranted, and conversely a decrease in safeguards effort where cooperation and compliance with safeguards obligations are the norm. This effect has been strongly demonstrated in Canada. The SLC promises to increase effectiveness as under it the IAEA can investigate the completeness of a Member State’s reports regardless of the safeguards agreements in force in that State. This shift addresses a weakness in the IAEA’s past approach to safeguards in non-AP Member States. The SLC will, in the CNSC’s opinion, enhance the IAEA’s ability to implement safeguards in a non-discriminatory manner. Under criteria-based methods, similar facilities in all Member States were verified at the same level, regardless of applicable State-specific factors, a particularly salient point for Canada. Under a criteria-based system Canada was routinely one of the top three consumers of IAEA field effort, even in the absence of safeguards concerns. Conversely, IAEA field effort in Canada under the SLC has dropped seventy percent, without compromising effectiveness. For these reasons Canada has and will continue to support the universal application of the SLC to all Member States, and the ongoing evolution of the SLC.