INTERNATIONAL SAFEGUARDS IN USA PAST, CURRENT AND FUTURE ACTIVITIES

The paper presents an overview of the application of IAEA safeguards in the United States with reference to past activities in US nuclear fuel cycle facilities. Some Agency criteria for the selection of facilities in the United States will be discussed. A new era of safeguards has begun with the transition to safeguards of nuclear material declared “excess to US national security needs” covering storage facilities, the recent down-blending of highly enriched uranium, and the forthcoming application of safeguards to the stabilization and repackaging process of plutonium and its subsequent transfer to new storage facilities waiting for disposition. This has resulted in a change of the objectives and in a new discussion of safeguards criteria. The pertinent safeguards approaches, including the applied verification and containment/surveillance techniques, are briefly described; inspection resources spent are indicated and “lessons learned” are addressed.