A new NTI paper, The IAEA’s Safeguards System as the Non-Proliferation Treaty’s Verification Mechanism, explores the creation, evolution, and future of the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) nuclear safeguards, the system that underpins the basic foundations of the global nuclear nonproliferation regime. Authors John Carlson, Vladimir Kuchinov, and Thomas Shea, writing as the world marks the 50th anniversary of the entry into force of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT), note that the IAEA safeguards system reinforces NPT states parties commitments to the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons and provides confidence that nuclear energy is used for exclusively peaceful purposes. An enduring and effective safeguards systems, they write, also will be essential to achieve a world free of nuclear weapons.
The paper addresses the challenges faced by the IAEA over time, from the signing of the NPT to the global expansion of nuclear power to cases of proliferation concern in Iraq, Libya, North Korea, and Iran, among others. Looking ahead, the authors highlight how factors such as the continued expansion of the IAEA’s monitoring and verification mission, further evolution in safeguards approaches, possible advances in safeguards technologies, ongoing concerns about future proliferation, and prospects for broader nuclear disarmament all will impact the future implementation of IAEA safeguards.
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Three members of NTI’s Nuclear Materials Security (NMS) team will participate in the 63rd annual meeting of the Institute of Nuclear Materials Management (INMM), which will be held virtually from July 24-28, 2022.
NTI Vice President for Nuclear Materials Security Scott Roecker and Program Officer Jessica Bufford presented at the first International Conference on Nuclear Law hosted by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna from March 25-29, 2022.
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.
