In Focus : IAEA and the NPT
IAEA Verification Activities at a Glance
The IAEA inspects nuclear and related facilities under safeguards agreements with more than 140 States. Most agreements are with States that have internationally committed themselves not to possess nuclear weapons, under the global Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT).
In a year, IAEA safeguards inspectors carry out over 2000 inspections at over 600 facilities. They analyse about 887 environmental swipe samples and verify that hundreds of tonnes of special fissile nuclear material remains in peaceful use. The figures below show just how much, how often, and what exactly is being safeguarded.
| Verification Activities | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | |
| Person-days of inspection | 10 314 | 10 084 | 9 260 |
| Number of new or revised Subsidiary Arrangements negotiated | |||
| -- General Parts | 9 | 3 | 5 |
| -- Facility Attachments | 10 | 12 | 17 |
| Number of nuclear material samples analysed | 831 | 736 | 678 |
| Number of nuclear material analytical results reported | 1747 | 1593 | 1426 |
| Number of environmental samples screened | 308 | 426 | 887 |
| Nuclear material under safeguards (tonnes) | |||
| Plutonium contained in irradiated fuel (including recycled plutonium in fuel elements in reactor cores) | 690 | 731.6 | 770.3 |
| Separated plutonium outside the reactor core | 77.5 | 82.0 | 85.5 |
| High enriched uranium | 20.9 | 31.8 | 31.8 |
| Low enriched uranium | 50 079 | 51 226 | 52 972 |
| Source material | 94 940 | 96 410 | 102 252 |
Source : 2003 IAEA Annual Report [pdf]