Year
2019
Abstract
Some Member States of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) have recommended that the IAEA should develop and apply verification goals, or performance targets, to determine what safeguards measures are necessary to attain the safeguards technical goals at their established level of priority and to assess whether the safeguards objectives were met by the implemented activities. The verification goals will be specific to a State-level approach and implementation procedures will be developed for each complex State to describe how the goals will be achieved. After such verification goals are established, a performance monitoring system will be needed to assess, record, and report on verification goal attainment. A performance monitoring system, including quality control tests, would support the attainment of State-level objectives and the safeguards conclusions reported in the Safeguards Implementation Report. Assessment of the attainment of verification goals is now performed by the Operations Division performing the in-field activities, using data recorded in the computerized inspection reports. In addition to an assessment of goal attainment, quality control tests provide confidence that the associated safeguards measures were performed effectively. This paper will discuss a unified system of verification goals and quality control tests that could be implemented to assess the accomplishment of safeguards objectives. Performance monitoring would also result in identification of actions that could be taken to further enhance the effectiveness of safeguards.