The Agency's Laboratories Seibersdorf and Vienna
Visit by Senator Lugar and delegation to the Safeguards Analytical Laboratory in Seibersdorf
Delegation US Senate, Foreign Relations Committee (SFRC):
- Sen. Richard Lugar (Chairman SFRC)
- Ken Myers, Jr (SFRC Staff director)
- Ken Myers III and Thomas Moore (SFRC Professional Staff)
Delegation US mission Vienna:
- Lisa Hiliard
- Linda Gregus
Senator Lugar has been a leader in reducing the threat of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons. In 1991, he forged a bipartisan partnership with then-Senate Armed Services Chairman, Sam Nunn (D-Ga.), to destroy these weapons of mass destruction in the former Soviet Union. To date, the Nunn-Lugar program has deactivated more than 6,800 nuclear warheads that were once aimed at the United States. After introduction by DIR-NAAL he was shown the Clean Lab and the nuclear laboratory of the Safeguards Analytical Laboratory.
As part of his visiting program with the IAEA and discussions on the implementation of Safeguards and assurance of nuclear fuel supply, he also visited SAL and was particularly interested in the sustainability of laboratory operations for the future. SAL analyses approximately 1000 nuclear samples by destructive analysis and 700 environmental samples every year. The support of the Network of Analytical Laboratories allows distribution of environmental sample analysis across the network, whereas for nuclear sample analysis the utilisation of the network has tended to zero.
