Scott A. Roecker
Vice President, Nuclear Materials Security
International Safeguards and Monitoring
Improving verification to prevent nuclear weapons proliferation
Challenge
The approach to safeguarding nuclear programs is inconsistent and critical gaps prevent the international community from adequately preventing proliferation crises.
Action
Develop new concepts and build collaborative engagements with the IAEA and other stakeholders to support robust fuel cycle verification.
Results
Strengthened international verification approaches through adoption of advanced technologies, enhanced monitoring measures, and implementation of dormant safeguards authorities.
International nuclear safeguards are measures that help the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) verify that countries without nuclear weapons are complying with their legal obligations to only use nuclear materials for peaceful purposes. Through the implementation of safeguards and monitoring agreements, the IAEA serves as an integral component of the international nuclear non-proliferation system. However, the constantly changing nature of the global nuclear fuel cycle environment presents persistent challenges to the system of rules and norms that govern countries’ behavior. These challenges have exposed critical gaps in the existing international safeguards system, most notably in the context of nuclear monitoring and verification in Iran and North Korea. At the same time, the development of advanced nuclear reactors and related fuel cycle technologies pose new questions about how to monitor and verify the peaceful use of nuclear energy.
By building a more comprehensive and collaborative dialogue with the IAEA and other stakeholders, NTI is helping identify ways to implement dormant authorities, encourage systematic improvements, explore the potential use of advanced monitoring technologies, and develop a vision for the future of nuclear safeguards.
This project compliments the work of NTI’s Fuel Cycle of the Future and Developing Spent Fuel Strategies projects. Together, these projects are advancing a comprehensive, proliferation-resistant nuclear fuel cycle that is backstopped with appropriate and effective safeguards and monitoring measures.
2022
What Is Safeguards Effectiveness?
The term “safeguards effectiveness” means the effectiveness of IAEA verification—that is, the ability of the IAEA to detect non-compliance.
Ensuring Safeguards Sustainability
The ways sustainability of the IAEA safeguards system can be ensured by the agency, its Member States, and the international community
Reflections on Safeguards Culture
The concepts of “nuclear safety culture” and“nuclear security culture” are well established in IAEA practice, but no similar terminology is used for nuclear safeguards.
Efficiency of IAEA Safeguards Implementation and Innovation
The IAEA safeguards system ensures that the nuclear material and activities falling under the scope of agreements between the IAEA and states are not being used to build nuclear weapons or any other nuclear explosive devices.
NTI and CENESS Offer Recommendations to Strengthen International Nuclear Safeguards
New approaches to strengthen international safeguards. The papers are the result of a 2021 project aimed at bridging a growing gap between Russian and U.S.-Western views on the effectiveness and sustainability of IAEA safeguards.
2021
U.S. Nuclear Policies for a Safer World
NTI Co-Chairs Ernest J. Moniz and Sam Nunn call on the United States to resume a position of global leadership to reduce the risks posed by nuclear weapons.
NTI and CENESS Convene Experts to Discuss the Future of IAEA Safeguards
Topics discussed ranged from safeguards culture to effectiveness to innovation.
2020
The Future of IAEA Safeguards: Rebuilding the Vienna Spirit through Russian-U.S. Expert Dialogue
The report includes four short papers written by U.S. and Russian experts with recommendations for the safeguards community, diplomats, and the public to bolster cooperation in this space.
Past Event
The Future of IAEA Safeguards: Rebuilding the Vienna Spirit through Russian-U.S. Expert Dialogue
Virtual
2016
A Nuclear Detective Story: How New Internet-Based Tools are Changing Nonproliferation
A new report by the Center for Nonproliferation Studies examines how the information revolution, and especially social media, is changing the field of nonproliferation.
2012
New Paper Reviews Expanded Safeguards
NTI expert John Carlson explores safeguards to verify that nuclear weapons states are complying with treaty obligations in a new paper