Chapter 11 - International safeguards

Abstract

The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) is the single most important component of the non-proliferation regime. Under it, the 182 nonnuclear-weapon State Parties have committed themselves not to manufacture or otherwise acquire any nuclear explosive device and to accept the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safeguards on all source or special fissionable material to verify that commitment. One of the IAEA’s (headquarters in Vienna, Austria) most important responsibilities is to verify the fulfilment of safeguards obligations assumed by States, under agreements with the IAEA concerning the peaceful use of nuclear materials or equipment. The IAEA safeguards system comprises technical measures for performing these verifications within the framework of international non-proliferation policy entrusted to the IAEA in its Statute and by the (NPTs). Iraq was the first Member State with declared nuclear facilities (which had been regularly inspected by the IAEA under a Safeguards Agreement) had clandestinely established additional nuclear facilities and had begun to produce nuclear material in violation of the Agreement. The IAEA Action Team succeeded in implementing a comprehensive programme of inspection activities by calling upon an impressive range of technical and administrative resources within the IAEA and its member states. The IAEA laboratories in Seibersdorf, Austria, played an important role in this effort by performing hundreds of analytical measurements on samples brought back by inspectors. IAEA is able to deploy the “state-of-the-art” tools, techniques, methodologies and expertise that are required for effective and efficient safeguards with Member State Support Programmes (MSSPs), which provide an additional financial and in-kind support through extrabudgetary contributions.