IAEA SAFEGUARDS: EVOLUTION OR REVOLUTION?

I am especially pleased to talk to you about the evolution of Agency safeguards — a more than forty-year long endeavor that, despite some setbacks, has been effective in verifying States’ nuclear non-proliferation commitments. Since the first Agency inspection in 1962 to verify the design of a small research reactor in Norway, the system has developed to a point at which, as of today, 140 States have safeguards agreements in force with the Agency, with nearly 900 facilities and approximately 110,000 significant quantities of nuclear material under Agency safeguards. Within this context, I wish to explore with you the hypothesis that the introduction of this international verification regime has sparked a revolution in that States have become increasingly willing to reduce their sovereignty in exchange for the greater benefit of world security. Admittedly, the transformation of these non-proliferation commitments into practical realities often has been disappointingly slow. Nevertheless, when viewed from the longer-term perspective of more than four decades of Agency safeguards, there have been major advances in world nuclear security.