MOSAIC – A Major Upgrade for Safeguards Implementation

Growing demands on the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) Department of Safeguards, arising from the increasing amount of new nuclear material and facilities under safeguards, will amplify the Department’s reliance on Information Technology (IT). This paper discusses how a major IT upgrade programme, the Modernization of the Safeguards Information Technology (MOSAIC), is enhancing safeguards implementation to achieve the required efficiency and productivity gains to fulfil the Departments’ international legal obligations within a static budget. The paper describes the modern technological IT solutions under development and their application in safeguards implementation. Greater reliance on IT, however, increases the exposure to cyber security threats. Therefore, protection of confidential safeguards information will be discussed in the paper vis-à-vis the necessary technological developments underway. In an ever-changing world, a dynamic safeguards environment requires an IT development approach that ensures continuous and incremental improvements to its IT infrastructure and supports the agility and responsiveness of the IAEA to unforeseen nuclear verification challenges. This paper will also introduce practices being successfully applied, and some of the lessons learnt, during the execution of this major IT programme in the Department.