The Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), meeting in Vienna, June 10-14 1996, reviewed the implementation of IAEA safeguards last year.
The Agency did not find any indication in 1995 of the diversion of nuclear material, or of the misuse of any facility, equipment, or non-nuclear material placed under safeguards. It therefore concluded that such items remained in peaceful use or were otherwise accounted for. However, the Agency was still unable to verify the initial declaration made by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK). The DPRK is not in full compliance with its safeguards agreement.
At the end of 1995, Agency safeguards agreements were in force with 125 States (and Taiwan, China), 66 of which (and Taiwan, China) had nuclear activities and were inspected. Safeguards were also implemented in 5 States with bilateral or multilateral agreements covering specified nuclear or non-nuclear material, facilities or equipment, as well as at designated installations in the five Nuclear Weapon States. During 1995, 554 nuclear facilities and other locations containing nuclear materials were inspected. A total of 2285 inspections were carried out requiring 10167 person-days of inspection effort.
The Agency employs approximately 200 field inspectors for this work, and the budget for this activity in 1995 was US $88,603,000, plus a further US $14 million of extra budgetary funds contributed by 8 Member States. Most of the Agency's inspection work is carried out under agreements pursuant to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which was extended indefinitely in May of 1995.
In a separate action last week, the Agency's Board of Governors also agreed to establish a special Committee to negotiate a new legal document that would be attached to existing Comprehensive Safeguards Agreements. This document would give the Agency more information about the nuclear activities of a State and an increased access to relevant installations in the State. These broader rights would strengthen the present verification system and markedly enhance the Agency's ability to detect possible clandestine undertakings.
Other highlights from the Agency's activities in 1995:
- the Agency maintained in 1995 - and still maintains - a team of inspectors in Iraq and in the DPRK;
- in the United States of America, safeguards were applied on nuclear material released from the US military programme in 1995 and voluntarily placed under Agency safeguards, in addition to material already released in 1994;
- verification of the initial inventories of nuclear materials submitted by three Newly Independent States of the former Soviet Union -- Belarus, Kazakstan and Ukraine -- was begun.
Although, in 1995, the Agency's safeguards activities were effective, several implementation difficulties have been encountered. These included technical difficulties with the Agency's surveillance equipment and also administrative restrictions imposed by several States on the designation of inspectors and on the availability of long-term multi-entry visas for inspectors. The Agency is taking steps to resolve these problems.
The Summary Report on safeguards implementation in 1995 is available from the IAEA's Division of Public Information. Telephone: +43-1-2060-21275