IAEA, VOL.37, N0.3 1995 BULLETIN VIENNA, AUSTRIA QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF THE INTERNATIONAL ATOMIC ENERGY AGENCY

Front Cover: The United Nations officially commemo- rates its 50th anniversary in October, with the interna- BULLETIN tional community taking stock of both its accomplish- ments and shortcomings as the world's instrument for international peace and sustainable development. The road ahead is full of challenge and opportunity. For the IAEA — which works closely with the UN and its family of organizations in the nuclear sphere — the future is unfolding along a compelling new course. Problems and needs have emerged which demand greater vigi- lance and cooperation among States — particularly concerning issues of nuclear non-proliferation, arms control, and safety. As they build toward the next 50 years, the IAEA and its UN partners will need renewed support to effectively help countries take steps on the road ahead for achieving a better, safer world. (Cover design: Hannelore Wilczek, IAEA; Stefan Brodek, Vienna; Photo: Zefa, Vienna; Bryan F. Peterson)

Facing Page: Emerging from the dust and death of scorched fields, a flower unfolds to the promise of life. (Credit: Stefan Brodek, Vienna) CONTENTS

Features The IAEA, United Nations, and the new global nuclear agenda by Hans Blixl 2 The IAEA and the UN family: Networks of nuclear cooperation by Sheel Kant Sharma 110 International law and nuclear energy: Overview of the legal framework by Mohamed ElBaradei, Edwin Nwogugu and John Rames 116 Radiation safety services: From the laboratory to the field by Robert Ouvrard and Fernando Lopez-Lizana 126

Bulletin Update Inside Technical Cooperation: Practical projects for development /Insert

Special Report Measure for measure: The NPT and the road ahead by Bernhanykun Andemicael, Merle Opelz and Jan Priest 130

Topical Reports IMS at 25: Pioneer of the nuclear information highway by Joyce Amenta and Alexander Sorokinl 39 The IAEA on line: Closer links for the global nuclear community by Jerry Barton and Lothar Wedelcind 144

Departments International Newsbriefs/Datafile / 48 Keep abreast with IAEA publications / 54 Posts announced by the IAEA / 55 Databases on line / 56 IAEA conferences and seminars/Coordinated research programmes / 60

ISSN 0020-6067 IAEA BULLETIN, VOL. 37, NO. 3 (SEPTEMBER 1995) FEATURES

US President Dwight D. Eisenhower at the United Nations in December 1953 proposing the creation of an international atomic energy agency. See excerpts from the historic address on pages 8 and 9.

IAEA BULLETIN, 3/1995 FEATURES

The IAEA, United Nations, and the new global nuclear agenda

Cooperative links in key areas have been strengthened in response to emerging challenges and opportunities

• ladical changes in the global nuclear land- cally support. At the global level, the members by Hans Blix scape after the Cold War have set the world on a are sovereign States who do not always see compelling new course. Smaller nuclear arse- eye-to-eye every step of the way. Efforts to nals, stronger bonds against the bomb's further bridge differences, build consensus, and coordi- spread, and renewed commitments for the atom's nate actions can be a complex, lengthy process. safe and peaceful use are all parts of the changing While talking about problems is not enough, it scene. The transformation is redefining the is the first step to finding and implementing global nuclear agenda for the United Nations and workable solutions for them. the IAEA on the road to the next millennium. Fortunately, the international climate now is Today's challenges and opportunities are more conducive to constructive action than dur- rooted in the concerted international drive over ing most of the UN's first half century. The the past half century to harness the atom and polarized ideological debates of the cold war no brighten prospects for a nuclear-weapons-free longer threaten to deadlock the UN. The warmer world. Despite positive steps and welcome shifts climate has opened important new avenues of of attitude, there is a difficult distance to go. But global cooperation, and is bringing new prob- key elements for sustaining progress are in place lems that must be solved to the tables of the UN and the missing pieces are not hard to see. and its family of organizations. The picture can be easily overshadowed by "The problems that confront the United the many critical assessments and competing Nations are also a challenge for the Member headlines of the day, especially in a year marking States that make up the United Nations and the both the atomic bomb's horrific power and the peoples of the world whom the organization anxious birth of the United Nations 50 years ago. serves," UN Secretary-General Boutros-Ghali The UN and its system of organizations have has recently written. "In these changed cir- come in for some particularly tough criticism. cumstances, there is a pressing need for gov- Whatever specific points at issue, the views are ernments and public opinion to decide what bound by common threads: the aspiration for a they want the United Nations to be, what they better and safer world, and the growing desire for want it to do, and what they are willing to greater confidence that one is being built. The contribute to make it work." UN was born as the world's instrument for inter- In the past, a good deal of criticism has been national peace and security to meet humanity's directed at the lack of cohesion and coordination highest hopes and greatest expectations, and in in the UN system. In my view, the criticism is not some ways it has been asked to carry out nearly applicable to the IAEA and its relations with the impossible missions. As the "Atoms for Peace" UN in the nuclear sphere. Channels have long organization within the UN system, the IAEA, been in place for effective cooperative action in too, is held to serve our highest standards and fields of nuclear non-proliferation and arms con- ideals. (See box, page 9.) trol, and the safe development of peaceful nu- While some of the criticism and calls for clear technologies. reform are justified, many accusations are mis- Three events over the past decade — the placed. Often discounted is the fact that no or- Chernobyl nuclear plant accident in 1986, the ganization operates in a vacuum. Achievements, discovery of Iraq's clandestine nuclear-weapons and shortcomings, are closely bound with fluid external events and internal realities of what members are willing to do, pay for, and politi- Dr. Blix is Director General of the IAEA.

IAEA BULLETIN, 3/1995 FEATURES programme in 1991, and the breakup of the So- these measures are working, albeit difficulties viet Union into independent States in the 1990s — remain in securing the DPRK's full compliance have particularly left their marks. The IAEA's with its safeguards agreement. agenda has adapted accordingly, to respond to new Overall, the Security Council has looked to sets of problems and needs. Some programmes the IAEA as the nuclear inspection arm of the have been reoriented, others significantly strength- UN system, and the IAEA has looked to the ened. The overriding aim is to support States in Council as the body politically responsible for building a stronger, more effective international ensuring compliance with nuclear non-prolifera- framework for safe nuclear development. Allow tion undertakings. Building upon this established me to more fully address some important aspects relationship is now of paramount importance as within the context of global developments and the more arms-control agreements requiring verifi- Agency's roles within the UN system. cation are adopted or near completion, and the non-proliferation regime nears universality. Forward movements. In May 1995, meet- Securing a nuclear-weapons-free world ing at UN headquarters in New York, the 178 States party to the landmark Treaty on the Non- Most visibly in the 1990s, the IAEA and UN Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) took have demonstrated close, prompt, and effective important steps forward. (See related article be- interaction in areas of disarmament and nuclear ginning on page 30.) They indefinitely extended non-proliferation. The widely publicized nuclear the NPT and confirmed that the NPT involved a inspections in Iraq — which the IAEA performs commitment to nuclear disarmament by the nu- under the mandate given by the UN Security clear-weapon States. They targeted 1996 for Council and with the cooperation of the UN conclusion of a Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Special Commission set up after the Gulf War — (CTBT), which is being negotiated under aus- are a case in point. Through dozens of IAEA-led pices of the UN Conference on Disarmament in missions under the Council's mandate, inspec- Geneva. States also called for an early conclu- tors discovered and mapped Iraq's clandestine sion of an agreement to cut off production of nuclear weapons programme, effectively moved fissile materials for weapons purposes; they en- to destroy or neutralize it, and activated a long- dorsed the creation of more nuclear-weapon-free term monitoring and verification plan to prevent zones; they expressed support for ongoing ef- its revival. forts aimed at more effective nuclear verifica- The case tested the global community's re- tion and IAEA safeguards; and they called for the solve and the responsiveness of its mechanisms provision of necessary resources for the Agency for sustained, coordinated and firm action. The to meet its responsibilities under the NPT. IAEA's founders presciently vested the Agency As the outcome of the NPT Conference made with a right of direct access to the Security Coun- clear, there is near universal renunciation of the cil, where international authority for enforce- bomb. The overwhelming majority of States no ment action is placed. The Council's determina- longer see the acquisition of nuclear weapons as tion to prevent proliferation was underscored in being in the best interests of their national secu- January 1992. In declaring that" the proliferation rity. Rather, these interests today are tied to so- of all weapons of mass destruction constitutes a cial, environmental, and economic conditions threat to international peace and security", the where expensive nuclear weapons are useless Council emphasized the integral roie of effective tools but affordable peaceful nuclear techniques IAEA safeguards in efforts to stop the spread of are valuable resources. nuclear weapons, and stated its readiness to take At the same time, more States are showing a appropriate measures in the case of any safe- readiness to make their nuclear programmes guards violations notified by the IAEA. more transparent and open to IAEA inspection In Iraq, the Council granted the IAEA inspec- and verification. They are doing so in recogni- torate incomparably wider powers and access to tion of the need to provide credible assurance to more information than States normally do under its their neighbours and the world that nuclear ma- safeguards system. Lessons from the case have terial and installations are used exclusively for prompted States to accept verification measures, peaceful purposes. Rather than limiting national and to consider others, that greatly strengthen the sovereignty, nuclear transparency and verifica- Agency's confidential database and verification tion are seen as means through which a State can capabilities, especially with respect to detecting enhance confidence in its non-nuclear weapon undeclared nuclear activities. The Agency's in- status and respect for its sovereignty. spections to verify the nuclear material subject to Extremely positive moves have been made. safeguards in the Democratic People's Republic of South Africa rolled back its nuclear-weapons Korea (DPRK) already have demonstrated that programme, joined the NPT, and fully cooper-

IAEA BULLETIN, 3/1995 FEATURES ated with subsequent IAEA verification meas- comprehensive IAEA safeguards. The actions ures. Both Argentina and Brazil have opened reconfirm their commitments to remove all nu- their nuclear sectors for inspection to each other clear weapons from their territories, though these and the IAEA, and nuclear-weapon-free zones steps are envisaged over the longer term. pinned to IAEA verification are poised to come A number of other challenges emanate from into being in Africa and into full force in Latin emerging needs for effective verification in areas America and the Caribbean. Such a zone in the of nuclear disarmament and arms control. Middle East also is no longer just a Utopian New verification roles. The CTBT, cut-off dream, in light of progress painstakingly agreement, and nuclear disarmament accords al- achieved through the region's peace process. ready reached or in sight will all require effective Challenges. Not all States having significant verification systems. nuclear activities have adhered to the NPT or ac- The nuclear test ban treaty will involve vari- cepted full-scope IAEA safeguards. That is one ous types of verification measures and ap- important missing piece of the non-proliferation proaches, some of which States have noted could regime. While these States do not say they house effectively be carried out by the IAEA. The nuclear weapons or harbour ambitions to make treaty's obligations, for instance, will consider- them, they have so far not been willing to accept ably overlap relevant provisions of the NPT, comprehensive international verification of their under which the IAEA already implements veri- nuclear programmes. The hope for the future fication measures in non-nuclear weapon States. hinges on the resolution of underlying regional Some States envisage the IAEA being entrusted security problems and further progress in the nu- with further verification tasks under the CTBT. clear disarmament field. A combination of meas- The cut-off agreement foresees a non-discrimi- ures will be needed, including those further reduc- natory ban on the production of fissionable material ing the nuclear arsenals of nuclear-weapon States, for nuclear weapons purposes. Here, too, the and fostering detente, security arrangements, and IAEA's relevant experience is being recognized. assurance that neighbours do not develop nuclear Under the NPT, the Agency applies safeguards to weapons. In the Middle East, for example, the the types of installations that would be subject to IAEA is assisting States on future verification verification under a cut-off agreement. models and approaches within the framework of Under disarmament agreements, large their desire to create a regional zone free of nuclear amounts of nuclear material will arise from the and other weapons of mass destruction. dismantling of nuclear warheads. While the nu- Another challenge facing the global commu- clear-weapon States will verify actual dismantle- nity is the anxiety over new risks following the ment of weapons, that is not necessarily the case breakup of the Soviet Union. In particular, the illicit for verification of the recovered plutonium and trafficking of nuclear materials has raised concerns, highly enriched uranium. Since late last year, the both from the standpoint of radiation safety and IAEA has been safeguarding some stored quan- nuclear security. Most of the cases reported and tities of weapons-usable nuclear material in the investigated so far, predominately in Europe, have United States, and it could provide similar veri- involved material of an amount or nature not useful fication in Russia or other nuclear-weapon States for weapons, and none has ultimately posed a seri- as decisions are taken. ous proliferation or radiation risk. The illegal ac- Stockpiles of plutonium and enriched uranium tions have set off an alarm, however, prompting are projected to grow considerably in years ahead, strong countermeasures against such unauthorized both as a result of weapons dismantlement and and uncontrolled movement of nuclear material. commercial nuclear operations. The Agency al- States cooperatively are strengthening their internal ready is working with States on methods and ap- and border surveillance systems, and the IAEA is proaches that are needed for effectively safeguard- executing an action plan to assist them in dealing ing these materials — whether they are kept in with some aspects of the problem. The work in- storage, disposed of as waste, or recycled as fuel in cludes the establishment of a databank on reported nuclear plants for electricity generation. trafficking cases and advising States on effective Expanding legal framework. In all these areas systems of nuclear material accountancy and con- of non-proliferation and arms control, the estab- trol. In July 1995, the President of the UN Security lished legal nuclear framework will expand as Council issued a statement underlining the Coun- new agreements are reached. We know from cil's support for IAEA activities in this area. experience, however, that agreements cannot be The dissolution of the Soviet Union also gave built on trust alone. They invariably call for con- rise to three new independent States with nuclear fidence-building measures, notably effective weapons on their territories, Ukraine, Belarus, verification. The more that armed forces and and Kazakhstan. All three have joined the NPT armaments are reduced, the more States will as non-nuclear weapon States, and accepted need to be confident that commitments are being

IAEA BULLETIN, 3/1995 FEATURES

observed, respected, and credibly verified. (ILO) have been involved in these efforts. In The IAEA's efforts to strengthen its verifica- 1996, the IAEA will be updating its recommen- tion system aim at providing more credible assur- dations covering the safe transport of radioactive ances about the correctness and completeness of materials, which regulators apply worldwide for declared nuclear inventories under NPT safeguards shipments on land, by sea, and by air. agreements, and thus about the absence of unde- The effects of radiation releases on human clared nuclear activities. Measures already in place health and the environment also are drawing and planned call for greater cooperation from close attention. Building upon its sponsorship of States. That governments are supporting them sig- the International Chernobyl Project in the early nals the growing importance they place upon rais- 1990s, the IAEA is organizing with WHO and ing the world's level of nuclear security, and rein- the European Commission a major international forcing confidence in its global guardians. symposium in April 1996, a decade after the accident. The scientific meeting will factually assess Chernobyl's radiological consequences, Nuclear safety & sustainable development in light of continuing speculation over its health and environmental effects. As in the safeguards field, new challenges Some special needs have arisen in countries and opportunities are influencing directions to of Central and Eastern Europe. They include ensure safe nuclear development. Many activi- upgrading levels of safety at nuclear plants of ties greatly contribute to realizing global objec- Chernobyl design, as well as other types of tives for sustainable development under Agenda power reactors; improving regulation and con- 21 adopted at the 1992 UN Conference on Envi- trol of radiation sources and their safe use; and ronment and Development. coordinating actions to strengthen global coop- High on the agenda are issues of nuclear and eration with Russia in areas of radioactive waste radiation safety. Since the devastating Chernobyl management and environmental restoration. accident in 1986, States have adopted three Nuclear power and energy needs. Greater safety-related international conventions under attention to issues of global safety should not IAEA auspices and are now working on others. mask the overall nuclear record, which is excel- The adopted agreements, which all set legally lent. The world's 432 nuclear power plants, for binding rules, cover the early notification of nu- example, generate about 17% of the world's total clear accidents; the provision of assistance in the electricity, and far higher shares in many coun- case of nuclear emergencies; and fundamental tries. Their normal operation has little environ- requirements and mechanisms for ensuring the mental impact. As the environmentally con- safety of nuclear power plants. Under prepara- scious Club of Rome has noted and many States tion is a convention covering the safe manage- have realized in practice, nuclear power is a ment of radioactive waste, and a revision of the greener option than those emitting carbon diox- Vienna Convention on liability for nuclear dam- ide and other gases as waste products threatening age. Additionally, parties to the London Conven- the atmosphere. tion, under auspices of the UN's International As sustainable development brings better liv- Maritime Organization, have adopted an interna- ing conditions to a growing world population, tional ban on the dumping of radioactive waste at greater use of energy, especially electricity, will sea, assigning the IAEA new responsibilities. be demanded. Where will it come from? Exten- These global steps do not transfer jurisdic- sive analyses of energy options are needed to tion from national authorities who remain factually frame answers. The IAEA and several chiefly responsible for nuclear and radiation other international organizations are assisting in safety. They do, however, underline the grow- comparative assessments of the benefits and ing awareness among States that safety levels problems of different electrical power options, must be high everywhere, and that basic rules including nuclear energy. should be respected by all. Nuclear techniques and development. In many instances, the work draws upon and Most States do not have nuclear power plants, augments the IAEA's extensive base of safety but they do apply nuclear techniques in many standards and services. Over the past years, for other ways. Being emphasized today are applica- example, fundamental standards for nuclear tions targeted at improving the production and power plants, and for radiation protection in preservation of food, health care services, indus- fields of medicine, agriculture, and industry, trial production processes, and fresh water sup- have been revised. International organizations plies, a problem of growing magnitude. ranging from the World Health Organization Working with a range of UN partners, the (WHO) to the Food and Agriculture Organiza- IAEA is carrying out projects to improve crop tion (FAO) and International Labour Office yields and pest controls in Bangladesh, China,

IAEA BULLETIN, 3/1995 FEATURES and Mali, for example, and to strengthen health security, in all its growing dimensions. In the screening programmes of newborn infants in Tu- next century — as we heard so dramatically at nisia and Uruguay. At the same time, desalina- the United Nations Conference on Population tion of seawater is drawing attention from coun- and Development in Cairo — there will be mil- tries in North Africa and the Middle East con- lions more citizens of the world. The headlines fronted with serious water needs. Agency spe- tell us the population bomb is ticking, that it took cialists are examining the technology's potential. 10,000 generations for the world to reach two Studies include analysis of possible coupling billion people but only 46 years — about the schemes with nuclear reactors to meet both de- UN's lifetime — for the population to triple. salination's energy requirements and the elec- The future is clear in its problems. Yet as UN tricity needs of local factories, households, and Secretary-General Boutros-Ghali has noted, it is businesses. in many ways more uncertain and complicated Throughout these and other IAEA-supported as to solutions. Hard work, greater cooperation, projects, countries are building up their capacity and resources are demanded. This is especially and skills for safely applying nuclear techniques true in the nuclear sphere, where the global to achieve key development goals. To maximize foundation — tested and strengthened over the IAEA-supported projects project benefits, stretch its limited resources, and past decade — must now be even more firmly are helping countries supported to meet the challenges and opportuni- use nuclear techniques bring the needed scientific expertise to bear on for their social and specific problems, the Agency is now reinforc- ties before us. • economic development. ing its ties with national and regional develop- ment agencies and banks, as well as with other global organizations.

Building for the future

As we critically reflect upon the changing world in this commemorative year, loud headlines should not obscure the quiet achievements of global cooperation. The record reflects substantial progress, giving us much to build upon. In a climate favouring nuclear cooperation rather than confrontation, renewed efforts to up- lift human standards of living have a greater chance of fruition. Disarmament is integral to the pace of progress. So, too, are advances in other fields — notably telecommunications, biotech- nology, and branches of science and medicine that will expand our access to knowledge and understanding of earth and human life systems. We have learned first hand that the world's security cannot be defined by the military dimen- sion alone. At the personal level, human security fundamentally embodies safety from threats of hunger and disease. The military side of the equation has tended to dominate thoughts — and national budgets. That is starting to change, as countries cut back military spending, overall at a 3% annual rate since 1987. The UN has estimated that the reduc- tion — the so-called peace dividend — has amounted to an estimated US $935 billion worldwide between 1987-94. Unfortunately so far, not much of that peace dividend has been rechanneled for social and environmental devel- opment — or for what might be called " sustain- able disarmament". Coming decisions will greatly influence ca- pabilities to meet the needs of global human

IAEA BULLETIN, 3/1995 _ ATOMS FOR PEACE

Forty-two years ago this December, US President Dwight D. others. Second, even a vast superiority in numbers of weapons, Eisenhower made an historic address to the 8th Session of the and a consequent capability of devastating retaliation, is no pre- United Nations General A ssembly. On 8 December 1953, Presi- ventive, of itself, against the fearful material damage and toll of dent Eisenhower proposed the creation of an international human lives that would be inflicted by surprise aggression... atomic energy agency. That proposal led to the IAEA. Excerpts I know that in a world divided, such as ours today, salvation follow: cannot be attained by one dramatic act. I know that many steps will have to be taken over many months before the world can look I feel impelled to speak today in a language that in a sense is new, at itself one day and truly realize that a new climate of mutually one which I. who have spent so much of my life in the military peaceful confidence is abroad in the world. But I know, above all profession, would have preferred never to use. That new language else, that we must start to take these steps — now... is the language of atomic warfare. There is at least one new avenue of peace which has not been The atomic age has moved forward at such a pace that every well explored — an avenue now laid out by the General Assembly citizen of the world should have some comprehension, at least in of the United Nations. In its resolution of 28 November 1953 comparative terms, of the extent of this development, of the (resolution 715 (VIII)) this General Assembly suggested: "that utmost significance to every one of us. Clearly, if the peoples of the Disarmament Commission study the desirability of estab- the world are to conduct an intelligent search for peace, they must lishing a sub-committee consisting of representatives of the Pow- be armed with the significant facts of today's existence. ers principally involved, which should seek in private an accept- My recital of atomic danger and power is necessarily stated able solution and report...on such a solution to the General As- in United States terms, for these are the only incontrovertible facts sembly and to the Security Council not later than 1 September that I know. I need hardly point out to this Assembly, however, 1954. that this subject is global, not merely national in character. The United States, heeding the suggestion of the General On 16July 1945, the United States set off the world's biggest Assembly of the United Nations, is instantly prepared to meet atomic explosion. Since that date in 1945, the United States of privately with such other countries as may be "principally in- America has conducted forty-two test explosions. Atomic bombs volved", to seek "an acceptable solution" to the atomic arma- are more than twenty-five times as powerful as the weapons with ments race which overshadows not only the peace, but the very which the atomic age dawned, while hydrogen weapons are in the life, of the world. We shall carry into these private or diplomatic ranges of millions of tons of TNT equivalent. talks a new conception. Today, the United States stockpile of atomic weapons, which, The United States would seek more than the mere reduction of course, increases daily, exceeds by many times the total equiva- or elimination of atomic materials for military purposes. It is not lent of the total of all bombs and all shells that came from every enough to take this weapon out of the hands of the soldiers. It must plane and every gun in every theatre of war in all the years of the be put into the hands of those who will know how to strip its Second World War. A single air group whether afloat or land military casing and adapt it to the arts of peace. The United States based, can now deliver to any reachable target a destructive cargo knows that if the fearful trend of atomic military build-up can be exceeding in power all the bombs that fell on Britain in all the reversed, this greatest of destructive forces can be developed into Second World War. a great boon, for the benefit of all mankind. The United States In size and variety, the development of atomic weapons has knows that peaceful power from atomic energy is no dream of the been no less remarkable. The development has been such that future. The capability, already proved, is here today. Who can atomic weapons have virtually achieved conventional status doubt that, if the entire body of the world's scientists and engi- within our armed services. In the United States, the Army, the neers had adequate amounts of fissionable material with which to Navy, the Air Force and the Marine Corps are all capable of test and develop their ideas, this capability would rapidly be putting this weapon to military use. transformed into universal, efficient and economic usage? But the dread secret and the fearful engines of atomic might To hasten the day when fear of the atom will begin to disap- are not ours alone. pear from the minds the people and the governments of the East In the first place, the secret is possessed by our friends and and West, there are certain steps that can be taken now. allies, the United Kingdom and Canada, whose scientific genius I therefore make the following proposal. made a tremendous contribution to our original discoveries and The governments principally involved, to the extent permitted the designs of atomic bombs. by elementary prudence, should begin now and continue to make The secret is also known by the Soviet Union. The Soviet joint contributions from their stockpiles of normal uranium and Union has informed us that, over recent years, it has devoted fissionable materials to an international atomic energy agency. extensive resources to atomic weapons. During this period the We would expect that such an agency would be set up under the Soviet Union has exploded a series of atomic devices, including aegis of the United Nations. The ratios of contributions, the at least one involving thermo-nuclear reactions. procedures and other details would properly be within the scope If at one time the United States possessed what might have of the " private conversations" I referred to earlier. been called a monopoly of atomic power, that monopoly ceased The United States is prepared to undertake these explorations to exist several years ago. Therefore, although our earlier start has in good faith. Any partner of the United States acting in the same permitted us to accumulate what is today a great quantitative good faith will find the United States a not unreasonable or advantage, the atomic realities of today comprehend two facts of ungenerous associate. even greater significance. First, the knowledge now possessed by Undoubtedly, initial and early contributions to this plan would several nations will eventually be shared by others, possibly all be small in quantity. However, the proposal has the great virtue

8 IAEA BULLETIN, 3/1995 ATOMS FOR PEACE _ that it can be undertaken without the irritations and mutual suspi- conducting of all experiments that were appropriate; second, cions incident to any attempt to set up a completely acceptable begin to diminish the potential destructive power of the world's system of world-wide inspection and control. atomic stockpiles; third, allow all peoples of all nations to see that, The atomic energy agency could be made responsible for the in this enlightened age, the great Powers of the earth, both of the impounding, storage and protection of the contributed fissionable East and of the West, are interested in human aspirations first and other materials. The ingenuity of our scientists will provide rather than in building up the armaments of war; fourth, open up special safe conditions under which such a bank of fissionable a new channel for peaceful discussion and initiative, at least a new material can be made essentially immune to surprise seizure. approach to the many difficult problems that must be solved in The more important responsibility of this atomic energy both private and public conversations if the world is to shake off agency would be to devise methods whereby this fissionable the inertia imposed by fear and is to make positive progress material would be allocated to serve the peaceful pursuits of towards peace. mankind. Experts would be mobilized to apply atomic energy to Against the dark background of the atomic bomb, the United the needs of agriculture, medicine and other peaceful activities. A States does not wish merely to present strength, but also the desire special purpose would be to provide abundant electrical energy in and the hope for peace. the power-starved areas of the world. The coming months will be fraught with fateful decisions. In Thus the contributing Powers would be dedicating some of this Assembly, in the capitals and military headquarters of the their strength to serve the needs rather than the fears of mankind. world, in the hearts of men everywhere, be they governed or The United States would be more than willing — it would be governors, may they be the decisions which will lead this world proud to take up with others " principally involved" the develop- out of fear and into peace. To the making of these fateful decisions, ment of plans whereby such peaceful use of atomic energy would the United States pledges before you, and therefore before the be expedited. Of those "principally involved" the Soviet Union world, its determination to help solve the fearful atomic dilemma must, of course, be one. — to devote its entire heart and mind to finding the way by which 1 would be prepared to submit to the Congress of the United the miraculous inventiveness of man shall not be dedicated to his States, and with every expectation of approval, any such plan that death, but consecrated to his life. would, first, encourage world-wide investigation into the most effective peacetime uses of fissionable material, and with the certainty that the investigators had all the material needed for the

The IAEA and United Nations

Within the UN system, the IAEA is an autonomous organization in its own right. Often thought of as the "Atoms for Peace" organization, the Agency traces its origins to the vision of US President Dwight Eisenhower. In December 1953, Eisenhower proposed to the UN General Assembly in New York the creation of an international atomic energy agency to harness the atom for the benefit of humanity. In 1954, the General Assembly set the proposal in motion, and a group was formed to define the new agency's mandate. The IAEA Statute was approved on 26 October 1956 at an international conference held at UN headquarters in New York, and the Agency came into existence in Vienna. Austria, on 29 July 1957. In November 1957, the General Assembly approved an agreement on the IAEA's relationship with the UN. The IAEA reports annually to the General Assembly and. whenever necessary, to the Security Council, which has primary responsibility for maintaining international peace and security, and the Economic and Social Council, which coordinates developmental work of the UN and its specialized agencies. Today, the Agency has 122 Member States who are directly involved in most aspects of nuclear energy "s global development. The global role of the IAEA is basically twofold: One, to help interested countries put peaceful nuclear technologies to work for beneficial applications in fields such as electricity production, health care, agricultural development, and industry. And two, to monitor civil nuclear activities, at the request of a State, to verify that safeguarded nuclear materials are not diverted to military purposes. This dual role has many dimensions. The IAEA's technical cooperation programme comprises nearly 1400 projects in about 90 developing countries, at a value of about US $50 million. Additionally, some 150 IAEA-supported research programmes are in some phase of operation around the world. Nearly 3000 experts are sent each year to developing countries to run training courses, for example, and more than 1000 scientific fellows and visiting scientists receive hands-on experience each year, at national or regional institutes, or at one of the IAEA's three research centres and laboratories. Activities related to safeguards and verification are fundamentally based on the Agency's Statute and safeguards agreements concluded with States. At the end of 1994, there were 843 nuclear facilities under safeguards, including facilities and other locations containing nuclear material. Safeguards agreements have been concluded with 118 States, including 102 States party to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, under which the IAEA is the designated inspectorate.

IAEA BULLETIN, 3/1995 FEATURES

The IAEA and the UN family: Networks of nuclear co-operation

A range of formal agreements and arrangements support the global foundation for peaceful nuclear development in many fields

by Sheel Kant hile its Charter makes no specific mention the IAEA has with other national, regional, and Sharma of the nuclear age, the United Nations moved global organizations whose work is of interest to quickly after its formation in 1945 to lay the Agency activities. basis of global co-operation in the nuclear field. At its first session in January 1946, the General Assembly adopted a resolution that, inter alia, Relationship agreement with the UN established the UN Atomic Energy Commission, which was formed to make specific proposals The IAEA's relationship agreement with the related to the international control and peaceful UN was, in fact, the result of many years of development of nuclear energy. Before it was deliberation. The work was guided by the expe- dissolved in January 1952, the Commission is- rience gained over a decade by specialized agen- sued a number of reports to the Security Council. cies that had concluded agreements with the UN. New impetus came in December 1953, when US The lengthy deliberations on the IAEA agree- President Eisenhower addressed the General As- ment reflected the special position that the IAEA sembly and dramatically proposed the creation has under the UN's aegis, namely to be responsi- of an international atomic energy agency. ble for "international activities concerned with In 1954, the General Assembly adopted the the peaceful uses of atomic energy". The agree- resolution [810A (IX)] that set in motion the ment was fashioned to accommodate the unique process to establish the IAEA. During that same nature of the IAEA's planned activities and the session, the Assembly also favourably consid- terms of its Statute. It thus brought the IAEA into ered a draft resolution to convene in 1955 what a category different from the specialized agen- would later become the first of four International cies within the UN system. The agreement rec- Conferences on the Peaceful Uses of Atomic ognized the Agency as an autonomous interna- Energy, and it established the UN Secretary- tional organization (under its Statute) in " work- General's Advisory Committee on the Peaceful ing relations" with the UN. Uses of Atomic Energy. Three years later, in Some basic principles underpin the relation- 1957, this Committee formally negotiated on the ship, as stated in the agreement's first Article: UN's behalf the relationship agreement with the "The Agency undertakes to conduct its activities IAEA Preparatory Commission, both of which in accordance with the Purposes and Principles had been envisaged in the Agency's Statute. of the United Nations Charter to promote peace Since that time, the UN and the IAEA have and international co-operation, and in conform- built an extensive network of global nuclear co- ity with policies of the United Nations furthering operation in fields related to international secu- the establishment of safeguarded world-wide rity, economic and social development, and the disarmament and in conformity with any interna- environment. This article presents an overview tional agreements entered into pursuant to such of agreements that have been put in place with policies". the UN and its specialized agencies. It also re- Other important features are that the IAEA is: views formalized cooperative arrangements that • required to submit its annual report to the UN General Assembly; • called upon to submit reports, when appropri- ate, to the Security Council and notify the Mr. Sharma is a staff member in the IAEA Division of Council whenever, in connection with the ac- External Affairs. tivities of the Agency, questions within the

10 IAEA BULLETIN, 3/1995 FEATURES

In Africa and other regions, the IAEA works closely with the FAO to help countries improve food production. (Credit: Emma Robson/UNDP)

competence of the Council arise. The IAEA is of nuclear applications and the specialized fields also called upon to cooperate with the Secu- of these agencies. They further provide for inter- rity Council by furnishing to it, at its request agency consultations and co-operation in various such information and assistance as may be forms. (See figure.) required in the exercise of the Council's re- Apart from this formal framework, informal sponsibility for maintenance or restoration of working contacts have been set up over the years international peace and security. The agree- based on shared interests and knowledge that can ment further provides that the Agency shall be brought to bear on specific issues. Participa- report to the Security Council and the General tion by the Agency in the meetings of the ACC Assembly any case of non-compliance with and its subsidiary organs also has broadened bi- safeguards undertakings, within the meaning lateral or trilateral consultations. of relevant provisions in the IAEA Statute, In some cases, standing arrangements have called upon to undertake consideration of any been put into place. First and foremost among resolution related to the Agency, adopted by these is the one between the IAEA and Food and the General Assembly or by a Council of the Agriculture Organization (FAO), which operate UN. Effective co-operation and co-ordination the Joint FAO/IAEA Division of Nuclear Tech- are also stipulated between the IAEA and niques in Food and Agriculture. Located at other UN-established bodies concerning the IAEA headquarters in Vienna, the Joint Division provision of technical assistance in the field marked 30 years of service in 1994 under an of atomic energy. Other provisions address arrangement whereby all of its programmes and co-operation with the UN's Administrative activities are approved by the governing bodies Committee on Co-ordination (ACC), as well of the two autonomous organizations. Notable as with UN specialized agencies. achievements have been recorded. A prime ex- ample is the work related to mutation breeding, through which nearly 2000 new beneficial varie- Agreements with inter-governmental ties of crops have been developed using radia- organizations and specialized agencies tion-based technology. Another valuable form of co-operation is The IAEA Statute envisaged co-operation through standing inter-agency forums. An exam- with specialized agencies within the UN family. ple here is the International Consultative Group on The specific terms for collaboration were sub- Food Irradiation (ICGFI), the coordinating group sequently fleshed out in individual formal agree- for global work in this field. It has been in operation ments. These co-operation agreements reflect since 1984 with participation by the IAEA, FAO, the particular interface between the wide range and World Health Organization (WHO).

IAEA BULLETIN, 3/1995 11 FEATURES

Other cases of such arrangements are evident of hormone radioimmunoassay. WHO takes part from the work of IAEA research laboratories and in IAEA radiation protection services and the centres. The IAEA and United Nations Educa- two organizations operate an international net- tional, Cultural and Scientific Organization work of Secondary Standard Dosimetry Labora- (UNESCO), for instance, jointly operate the In- tories and a dose intercomparison programme for ternational Centre for Theoretical Physics in Tri- cobalt-60, widely used in medical treatment. este, Italy. The IAEA's Marine Environment The IAEA additionally undertakes joint pro- Laboratory in Monaco (IAEA-MEL) — unique jects with other members of the UN family, pool- in the UN system — has long-standing arrange- ing expertise and resources whenever appropri- ments in place with the United Nations Environ- ate. In areas of nuclear and radiation safety, a ment Programme (UNEP) and with UNESCO's practice has evolved whereby manuals, stand- Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission ards, regulations, and recommendations are is- (IOC). Links have especially been strengthened sued under the joint sponsorship of IAEA, FAO, since the 1992 UN Conference on Environment WHO, and the International Labour Office and Development (UNCED) on matters related (ILO). In the 1990s, the International Chernobyl to the measurement and control of global marine Project involved co-operation with FAO, ILO, pollution, and protection of ocean and coastal WHO, the World Meteorological Organization waters. In the context of the Earthwatch initia- (WMO), and the United Nations Scientific Com- tive, UNEP also has designated the IAEA's mittee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation (UN- Seibersdorf Laboratories as as an inter-agency SCEAR), as well as the Commission of the Euro- collaborating centre, specifically to serve as the pean Communities. Similarly, WHO's Interna- laboratory for reference environmental materials tional Programme on the Health Effects of the and methods. Chernobyl Accident (IPHECA) is coordinated Less institutional but effective co-operation with the IAEA, FAO, ILO. the Pan-American is maintained with WHO. By mutual agreement, Health Organization (PAHO), and the Nuclear En- areas of interest have been defined to avoid du- ergy Agency of the Organization for Economic plication; this is the case, for instance, in the field co-operation and Development (OECD/NEA).

The IAEA and non-governmental organizations (NGOs)

In keeping with the IAEA's Statute — which authorizes it to tute for Applied Systems Analysis; International Nuclear Socie- establish appropriate relations with "any organization the work ties Council; International Radiation Protection Association; Nu- of which is related to that of the Agency" —19 non-governmental clear Energy Institute; the Uranium Institute, and the World organizations (NGOs) have formal consultative status with the Association of Nuclear Operators (W ANO). The Director General Agency. Seven others have been invited by the IAEA Board of may request NGOs having special competence in a particular field Governors as observers to the Agency's General Conference or to undertake specific studies or investigations, or to prepare papers to undertake specific tasks. for the Agency. Those with consultative status are the European Atomic Fo- NGOs with consultative status are allowed certain privileges rum; European Confederation of Agriculture; International Air and facilities in connection with meetings of the General Confer- Transport Association; International Cargo Handling Co-ordina- ence and the Board. These include the right to receive the provi- tion Association; International Chamber of Commerce; Interna- sional agendas of the Conference; the right to send observers to tional Commission on Radiological Protection; International all public meetings of the General Conference and of the Board; Commission on Radiation Units and Measurements; International the right to submit written statements to any organ of the Agency, Confederation of Free Trade Unions; International Co-operative subject to censorship by the Director General; the right to submit Alliance; International Council of Scientific Unions; International oral statements to Committees of the General Conference or Federation of Documentation; International Federation of Indus- before public meetings of the Board, subject to various restric- trial Producers of Electricity for Own Consumption; International tions; the right to be invited by the Director General to other meetings Organization for Standardization; International Union for Inland convened by the Agency; the right to consult with members of the Navigation; International Union of Producers and Distributors of Secretariat; the right to have access to any document services estab- Electrical Energy; Japan Atomic Industrial Forum, Inc.; World lished for the press and to the Agency's library. Confederation of Labour; World Energy Council; and World Arrangements have also been made with NGOs active in the Federation of United Nations Associations. field of electric power and energy economics for the exchange of In addition, certain NGOs with no formal consultative status statistics and documents and for attendance at each other's but having concern with developing uses of nuclear energy for meetings. Thus, representatives of the International Union of peaceful purposes are invited to send observers to the regular Producers and Distributors of Electrical Energy and of the World session of the Agency's General Conference. These include: the Energy Council have participated in the Agency activities and American Nuclear Society; Canadian Nuclear Society; European are in close collaboration with the IAEA on matters of mutual Nuclear Society; European Physical Society; International Insti- interest,

12 IAEA BULLETIN, 3/1995 FEATURES

In many cases, the joint organization of sci- tarian Affairs (UNDHA), UNESCO, UNEP, entific meetings has become a common practice. UNSCEAR, FAO, and OECD/NEA. A case in point is the upcoming international con- On energy-related matters, the IAEA has ference on Chernobyl's radiological consequences joined forces with a number of organizations in April 1996. It is being co-sponsored by the within and outside the UN family. One particular European Commission, the IAEA, and WHO, in focus is on the comparative assessment of energy co-operation with the UN Department of Humani- sources for electricity production. In 1991 at a

THE INTERNATIONAL ATOMIC ENERGY AGENCY: CO-OPERATIVE NETWORKS

UNITED NATIONS Relationship Co-operation Agreements (New York) Agreement UN Spezialized Agencies

World Health Organization WHO (Geneva)

World Meteorological Organization WMO (Geneva)

Toronto International Labour Office Safeguards ILO Field Office (Geneva) Co-operation Agreements Intergovernmental Organizations United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Tokyo Organization Safeguards Nuclear Energy Agency of Field Office UNESCO Organization for Economic (Paris) Co-operation & Development (Paris) International Civil Aviation IAEA-MEL Organization Organization for the (Monaco) ICAO Prohibition of Nuclear (Montreal) Weapons in Latin America (Mexico City) Food and Agriculture Working Contacts with IAEA Organization European Atomic Energy FAO Community (Rome) United Nations Environment (Brussels) Programme UNEP (Nairobi) International Maritime Organization . IMO Organization of African Unity United Nations Scientific (London) (Addis Ababa) Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation UNSCEAR (Vienna) United Nations Industrial Development Organization League of Arab States United Nations Development UNIDO (Tunis) Programme (Vienna) UNDP (New York)

Inter-American Nuclear United Nations Department of Humanitarian Affairs Energy Commission UNDHA (Geneva) Notes: The International Centre for (Washington, DC) Theoretical Physics (ICTP) is jointly operated with UNESCO. The IAEA International Bank for Marine Environment Laboratory, Monaco Reconstruction & (IAEA-MEL) is with the participation of Arab Atomic Energy Agency Development. UNEP. The Agriculture and Biotechnology (Tunis) World Bank (Washington, DC) Laboratory at Seibersdorf is jointly operated with FAO.

IAEA BULLETIN, 3/1995 13 FEATURES

symposium organized by the IAEA and nine to the environment and sustainable development. partners, senior experts examined the environ- The CCPOQ holds discussions on technical co- mental and health effects of different energy sys- operation in order to arrive at a common under- tems for electricity generation and the prospects standing of the problems involved and to estab- of increasing efficiency in energy use. The con- lish, wherever possible, a common approach in clusions were submitted to the Preparatory Com- dealing with them. One of the main issues cur- mittee of the Rio Conference (UNCED). Sub- rently under review is the implementation of sequently, the Agency initiated a joint inter- General Assembly Resolution 47/199 regarding agency project on databases and methodologies UN operational activities for development. Other for comparative assessment of different energy issues include African development, field level sources for electricity generation, called DEC- co-ordination mechanisms, and support costs. ADES. Databases cover technical and economic The IAEA additionally supports work of the parameters as well as emission levels and prob- UN's Joint Inspection Unit (JIU) by regularly lems at different steps of the electricity genera- contributing to its draft reports and evaluations. tion chain. The work includes a review of the Other mechanisms for coordinating inter- various approaches to comparative assessment agency activities have been created in response that may be used in the planning and decision- to specific issues and needs involving the making processes. Project results will be consid- IAEA's support. They include the Intergovern- ered in October 1995, at a major international mental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the symposium on electricity, health, and the envi- Joint Group of Experts on the Scientific Aspects ronment. It is being co-sponsored by the IAEA, of Marine Environment Protection (GESAMP), WMO, World Bank, OECD/NEA, EC, Interna- which is under the co-sponsorship of the Interna- tional Institute of Applied Systems Analysis (II- tional Maritime Organization (IMO), FAO, ASA), United Nations Industrial Development WMO, WHO, IAEA, UN, UNESCO, and Organization (UNIDO), and the Organization of UNEP. Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). Relations at the headquarters level. The Another cooperative venture, involving the IAEA maintains close links with UNDP headquar- IAEA and United Nations Development Pro- ters on Agency projects, its activities related to its gramme (UNDP), was launched in 1993 to assist regional programmes, and other related matters. Newly Independent States (NIS) of the former For projects related to mineral exploration, Soviet Union to improve their infrastructures for there is an understanding on delineation of tasks radiation protection and nuclear safety. with the UN Department of Development Sup- port and Management Services. General mining exploration activities are carried out by the UN Technical co-operation links Department, but exploration for uranium-bear- ing minerals is the IAEA's responsibility. The Technical co-operation activities of the IAEA has carried out mineral exploration pro- IAEA have grown considerably over the last two jects involving uranium resources financed by decades, significantly expanding their scope. In UNDP. Under a UNDP-initiated energy project, general, the cooperative network can be de- the Agency also has co-operated closely with the scribed broadly under three relationship levels: World Bank through provision of technical ad- Participation in the coordinating machin- vice on the development of energy policies and ery of the UN system for operational activities. strategies. The IAEA participates in the work of the ACC, In other areas of technical co-operation, com- which is at the apex of UN system-wide co-ordi- mon interests were identified with UNIDO in a nation. The link extends to various subsidiary 1987 agreement. UNIDO is currently working bodies within the ACC framework that deal with with the Agency to ascertain the viability of specific matters; for example, statistical activi- mass-rearing insects on an industrial scale using ties; information management; groundwater re- radiation technology in support of pest control sources; oceans and coastal areas; and women's projects in Africa. UNEP is working with the concerns. IAEA on environmental monitoring of non-ra- The Agency also takes part in other inter- dioactive pollutants in areas where IAEA activi- agency mechanisms, including the IACSD (In- ties complement activities under its Global Envi- ter-Agency Committee on Sustainable Develop- ronmental Monitoring System (GEMS). ment), CCPOQ (Consultative Committee on Co-operation at the national level with UN Programme and Operational Questions), and the agencies, in particular UNDP. Since it has no CCAQ (Consultative Committee on Administra- technical officers permanently in the field, the tive Questions). The IACSD co-ordinates fol- IAEA draws upon the UN resident co-ordinator low-up work to the UNCED on activities related system, working closely with UNDP field of-

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fices. Delivery of IAEA technical assistance is Reporting System for nuclear power plants. channeled through the local UNDP office. High-level meetings are held annually to review UNDP-financed projects often serve as focal and discuss co-operation in these and other areas, points around which IAEA technical assistance including training programmes, scientific con- can be designed and thereby more deeply an- ferences, and research in fields related to health chored in the development priorities of recipient and safety, waste disposal, transport of radioac- countries. Co-ordination with UNDP also en- tive materials, and nuclear law. sures better awareness, through resident plan- ning authorities, of nuclear applications and their potential contributions in fields such as plant Strengthening the foundation breeding, hydrology, medicine, industry, and pest control. The IAEA's relationships with the UN and other organizations have been established care- fully and steadily over the years. The agreements Relationships with non-UN organizations with the UN and some of its specialized agencies have been founded on the provisions of the To put the global nuclear network into true Agency's Statute as well as the UN Charter. Ma- perspective, it is useful to look at the IAEA's rela- jor changes could not be envisaged without corre- tionships with organizations outside the UN sys- sponding amendments to these instruments. tem. Their activities in many cases are directly Overall, the relationships have served to aug- related to the IAEA's work in specific areas. ment the global foundation for nuclear co-opera- Nineteen non-governmental organizations tion in important ways. It has been relatively have consultative status with the Agency, which easy to tailor or expand the cooperative network enables close working contacts. (See box). For- to meet the demands of important new priorities mal co-operation agreements have been con- of the UN and IAEA. Such has been the case cluded with seven inter-governmental organiza- regarding the range of Agency activities contrib- tions: the OECD/NEA, the Inter-American Nu- uting to Agenda 21 and sustainable develop- clear Energy Commission of the Organization of ment. Even closer and broader co-operation is American States (IANEC); the Organization of required as this agenda moves ahead. African Unity (OAU); the European Atomic En- In the IAEA's experience, co-operation and ergy Community (EURATOM); the League of co-ordination among many organizations gener- Arab States (LAS); the Organization for the Pro- ally has been most effective on administrative hibition of Nuclear Weapons in Latin America and financial matters where the problems are (OPANAL); and the Arab Atomic Energy rather clearly spelled out and the solutions, ac- Agency (AAEA). cordingly, easier to find. More difficult, because By virtue of these agreements, these organi- of the complexities and different technologies zations are entitled to be represented at the ses- involved, is co-ordination on matters relating to sions of the General Conference. An additional technical programmes. Owing to differing man- seven inter-governmental organizations are nor- dates and administrative procedures, practical mally invited to send observers to the General problems and delays can frequently arise. Conference every year by virtue of their concern For greater effectiveness, relationships be- with developing uses of nuclear energy for tween organizations, as those between individu- peaceful purposes or with research in the nuclear als, must be kept alive and active. Rigid adher- services. These are the: Brazilian-Argentine ence to the letter of the law, or to precedent and Agency for Accounting and Control of Nuclear formal procedure, may not achieve the needed Materials (ABACC); International Bureau of results. Overall experience has shown that it is Weights and Measures (IBWM); International generally possible to reach flexible, workable Energy Agency of the Organization for Eco- arrangements to overcome difficulties, prevent nomic Co-operation and Development unnecessary duplication, and ensure coordinated (OECD/IEA); Joint Institute for Nuclear Re- international action. search (JINR); Latin American Energy Organi- As more emphasis is placed on global co-op- zation (OLADE); Middle Eastern Regional Ra- eration involving organizations within and out- dioisotope Centre for the Arab Countries side the UN family, more unified approaches (MERRCAC); and OPEC. will be demanded. The co-operative network es- The IAEA's co-operation with the NEA is tablished in the nuclear field over the past half particularly close in several key areas. It includes century offers a solid basis for more concerted joint preparation of specialized publications, and effective action. • such as Uranium Resources Production and De- mand, and the joint operation of the Incident

IAEA BULLETIN, 3/1995 15 FEATURES

International law and nuclear energy: Overview of the legal framework

The global legal order for the atom's safe and peaceful uses is grounded on a mix of binding norms and advisory regulations

by n eaceful applications of nuclear energy — and used in such a way as to further any military Mohamed all the promise they entail for humanity — are purpose". ElBaradei, Edwin paradoxically often perceived in juxtaposition with Over the past three decades, international co- Nwogugu the prospects of nuclear weapons' proliferation and operation in the field of nuclear energy has yielded and John Rames nuclear war. The mixed perception is under- a mix of legally binding rules and advisory stand- standable: the materials, knowledge, and expertise ards and regulations. This article presents an over- required to produce nuclear weapons are often in- view of this global legal framework for nuclear distinguishable from those needed to generate nu- energy's safe and peaceful development. It specifi- clear power and conduct nuclear research. cally addresses areas of nuclear safety, radiation As a result, the focus of the international com- protection, radioactive waste management, the munity has always been to ensure that nuclear transport of radioactive materials, emergency assis- energy is used peacefully and safely. The approach tance and planning, civil liability for nuclear dam- is defined by a complex network of national and age, physical protection of nuclear material, armed international measures. For while it was accepted attacks against nuclear installations, and IAEA that the primary responsibility for the regulation of safeguards and verification. the use of nuclear energy rests with national authorities, it has been equally recognized that other countries may be affected as well. Conse- The safe use of nuclear energy quently, the regulation of nuclear energy, like so many other human activities which could have Article III.A.6 of the IAEA Statute empow- potential transboundary impacts, necessitates the ers the Agency to establish or adopt standards of endowment of the international community with safety for the protection of health and the mini- residual responsibility, or in certain instances co- mization of danger to life and property. That responsibility, to ensure among other things uni- provision also requires that those standards must formity of standards, co-ordination, pooling of re- be applied to the IAEA's own operations and to sources and services, as well as compliance.* operations making use of materials, services, In this respect, the IAEA, among other interna- equipment, facilities, and information made tional and regional organizations, has served as a focal available by the Agency or at its request or under point. Article II of die IAEA Statute provides that its control or supervision. States which receive "the Agency shall seek to accelerate and enlarge the technical assistance or reactor project assistance contribution of atomic energy to peace, health, and must sign an agreement with the IAEA in which prosperity throughout the world" and to ensure so far they undertake to apply to the assisted operations as it is able, "that assistance provided by it or at its the Agency's safety standards and measures that request or under its supervision or control is not are specified in the agreement. The Statute also authorizes the Agency to apply its safety stand- ards, at the request of States, to any of their operations or activities. Mr. ElBaradei is Assistant Director General and Director of the In fulfilling its statutory function of develop- IAEA Division of External Relations. Messrs. Nwogugu and Rames are senior staff members in the IAEA Legal Division. ing safety standards, the IAEA takes account of This article is based upon more comprehensive information in the two-volume book, The International Law of Nuclear En- ergy: Basic Documents, which the authors edited and was * See generally, "The Role of the IAEA in the Development published in 1993 by Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, P.O. Box of International Law", by Dr. Hans Blix, Nordic Journal of 163, 3300 AD Dordrecht, The Netherlands. International Law, 58 (1989).

16 IAEA BULLETIN, 3/1995 FEATURES the work of relevant international scientific and culture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, technical bodies, such as the International Com- and the Pan-American Health Organization mission on Radiological Protection (ICRP), the (PAHO). The IAEA Board of Governors approved United Nations Committee on the Effects of the revised standards in September 1994. Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR), the World The BSS are complemented by other stand- Health Organization (WHO), and the Interna- ards dealing with particular aspects of radiation tional Labour Office (ILO). protection: occupational protection; protection Concern to ensure the safe use of nuclear of the public and the environment; and interven- energy — which includes activities making use tion in case of a nuclear accident or radiological of the by-products of nuclear energy and the use emergency. of radioactive substances in medical, industrial, and agricultural activities — is caused by the capacity of ionizing radiation to cause damage to Safety of nuclear power plants living beings and the environment. The safety objectives strive to protect living beings, society, The IAEA has developed Nuclear Safety and the environment against the adverse effects Standards (NUSS) for nuclear power plants of ionizing radiation. which were prepared by experts from its Member International action in this field began with States. They cover the following five areas: gov- the establishment of the ICRP, which has issued ernmental organization of regulation of nuclear recommendations on radiation protection since power plants; safety in nuclear power plant sit- its inception in 1928. In 1955, the United Nations ing; safety in the design of nuclear power plants; General Assembly established UNSCEAR to safety in nuclear power plant operation; and evaluate doses, effects, and risk from ionizing quality assurance for safety of nuclear power radiation on a worldwide scale. The work of plants. It was considered that formalized safety these two bodies provides the basis for the stand- criteria, covering these areas, in the form of ards elaborated by other international and re- codes of practice and guides, would considerably gional organizations, such as the IAEA, ILO, assist in ensuring that the basic requirements on WHO, Euratom, and the NEA. In developing which the safety of nuclear power plants rest are standards, these organizations have built close understood and met. These basic requirements working relationships. are: an adequate supply of trained personnel at a The need to establish appropriate standards plant and to staff a regulatory agency; the ability designed to ensure the safe use of nuclear energy to conduct a careful and detailed safety evaluation is reflected in the constituent instruments of such of a nuclear power plant project from its inception organizations. The binding nature of the safety and at all stages throughout its life; and, the standards developed pursuant to such interna- ability to conduct an appropriate quality assurance tional instruments varies. Thus, while the safety programme including control and inspection. standards developed by Euratom are mandatory, Codes of Practice relating to each of the five the activities relating to safety regulation of the areas were initially issued in 1978, and have been Nuclear Energy Agency of the Organization for subsequently revised. The Codes are supple- Economic Cooperation and Development mented by more than 60 Safety Guides which (OECD/NEA) and the Arab Atomic Energy detail their implementation. Agency (AAEA) are recommendatory. The Although the international community at IAEA's safety standards are mandatory with re- large is not yet willing to transform these recom- gard to nuclear activities undertaken with IAEA mendations into binding standards, they are assistance, but where such assistance is not pro- widely used in the elaboration of national regu- vided the standards are recommendatory. lations. However, the application of NUSS is Radiation protection. The scientific basis mandatory where assistance is provided by or for radiation protection standards is found in through the IAEA. recommendations made, and periodically re- Nuclear safety convention. In September viewed, by the ICRP which take account of the 1994, the International Convention on Nuclear UNSCEAR studies. Safety was opened for signature at the IAEA The work underlies the International Basic General Conference. Since then, six of the 58 Safety Standards (BSS) for Protection Against signatory States have become parties to the Ionizing Radiation and for the Safety of Radia- Convention. tion Sources by which the IAEA, ILO, WHO, The Convention commits participating and NEA have provided a worldwide basis for States to ensure the safety of land-based civil harmonized and up-to-date standards. The BSS nuclear power plants including such storage, recently were reviewed and revised by those four handling, and treatment facilities for radioactive organizations together with the Food and Agri- materials as are on the same site. States are

IAEA BULLETIN, 3/1995 17 FEATURES

obliged to take within the framework of their In 1990, the IAEA General Conference national laws, the legislative, regulating and ad- adopted a Code of Practice on International ministrative measures, and other steps necessary Transboundary Movement of Radioactive for implementing their obligations under the Waste. The Code's purpose is to provide preven- Convention. Main features include the estab- tive measures against any uncontrolled interna- lishment of a reporting system on the implemen- tional movement and disposal of such waste. tation by Contracting States of the obligations of States and international organizations have the Convention. also been engaged in the regulation of radioac- Notification of a nuclear accident and tive waste. Two examples may be given. The emergency assistance. Following the Three Antarctic Treaty (Article V) prohibits the dis- Mile Island (TMI) nuclear accident in 1979 in the posal of radioactive waste in the Antarctic re- United States, the need to create a framework for gion. Similarly, Article IV of the London Con- reporting and mutual assistance in nuclear acci- vention 1972 regulates the sea dumping of radio- dents was brought home to the international active waste. In February 1994, amendments to community. Under the auspices of the IAEA, the London Convention took effect that prohibit two documents were developed after TMI that the dumping of all types of radioactive waste at set guidelines for States. sea. Further, Article 5 of the Convention on the In the aftermath of the Chernobyl accident in Prevention of Marine Pollution from Land-Based 1986, two conventions — the Convention on Sources obliges Member States to adopt measures Early Notification of a Nuclear Accident and the to eliminate pollution of the marine area by radio- Convention on Assistance in Case of a Nuclear active substances from land-based sources. Accident or Radiological Emergency — were Regional regulation of sea dumping of radio- elaborated and adopted within the framework of active waste has also been undertaken in various the IAEA. The Conventions came into force on parts of the world. In 1977 a Decision of the 27 October 1986 and 26 February 1987, respec- OECD Council replaced the ad hoc and volun- tively. Seventy-four States have become parties to tary arrangements previously in existence with a the early notification convention and 70 States have Multilateral Consultation and Surveillance become parties to the assistance convention. Mechanism for Sea Dumping of Radioactive A number of bilateral and regional arrange- Waste. The decision commits participating coun- ments also exist in these areas. In 1963, the tries to apply the guidelines and procedures Nordic Emergency Assistance Agreement in adopted within the NEA and to subject their sea Connection with Radiation Accidents was con- dumping operations to the system of prior con- cluded between the IAEA and the governments sultation and international surveillance organ- of Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden. ized by the NEA. Other examples of regional ar- Also the Council of European Communities rangements are the Convention on the Pollution of adopted on 11 December 1984 a Decision on the Mediterranean Sea, 1976 and its two Protocols Community Arrangements for the Early Ex- of 1976 and 1980; the Convention on the Protec- change of Information in the Event of a Radio- tion of the Marine Environment of the Baltic Area, logical Emergency. 1974; and the South Pacific Convention for the Protection of the Natural Resources and Environ- ment of the South Pacific Region, 1986. Radioactive waste management The concern of developing countries that ra- dioactive waste is not imported into their territo- In view of the potential hazard to man and the ries was largely responsible for the inclusion in environment posed by radioactive waste, its Article 39 of the Fourth Convention (1989) be- management and disposal have become an im- tween African, Caribbean, and Pacific States and portant issue in considering the nuclear power the European Economic Community of an un- option and in the use of nuclear materials. The dertaking by the Community to prohibit the ex- IAEA has developed safety objectives for the port of such waste from the territory of its Mem- management of radioactive waste. Several IAEA ber States. On the other hand, the African, Carib- documents further have established criteria to bean and Pacific States undertook to prohibit the govern the management and disposal of radioac- import of radioactive waste from the Community tive waste. The IAEA also established the Radio- or from any other country. In conformity with active Waste Safety Standards (RADWASS) this provision, Article 4 of the Bamako Conven- programme in 1991 to prepare a harmonized tion on the Ban of the Import into Africa and the approach to the safe management of radioactive Control of Transboundary Movement of Hazard- waste at the international level. RADWASS will ous Wastes within Africa — which was adopted constitute a hierarchy of documents headed by a by the Organization of African States in January Safety Fundamentals document. 1991 — prohibits the import of all hazardous

18 IAEA BULLETIN, 3/1995 FEATURES wastes including radioactive substances into Af- In 1993, a Joint Working Group of the IAEA, rica from non-contracting parties. IMO, and United Nations Environment Pro- Steps toward convention on radioactive gramme (UNEP) elaborated a draft "Code for waste management. In 1993, the IAEA General the Safe Carriage of Irradiated Nuclear Fuel, Conference requested the Directed General "to Plutonium and High Level Radioactive Wastes initiate preparations for a convention on the in Flasks on board Ships". The Code has re- safety of waste management as soon as the ongo- ceived the approval of the IMO Assembly and of ing process of developing waste management the IAEA's policy-making organs. safety fundamentals has resulted in broad inter- national agreement". At its March 1995 session, the IAEA Board approved the safety fundamen- Civil liability for nuclear damage tals document entitled "The Principles of Radio- active Waste Management". The document will The mitigation of the consequences of a nu- facilitate the work of an open-ended group of clear accident through prompt and adequate technical and legal experts charged with carrying compensation is an important component of the out the necessary substantive preparations for a regime for the safe utilization of nuclear energy. convention on the safety of radioactive waste Today several international conventions regulate management. Toward this end, the group has liability for nuclear damage. held meetings in February and in July 1995. The first is the 1963 Vienna Convention on Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage, concluded under the auspices of the IAEA. This Convention Transport of radioactive materia! is worldwide in scope but only 14 States have become parties. The second is the 1960 Paris The IAEA has taken the lead in developing Convention on Third Party Liability in the Field appropriate regulations for the safe transport of of Nuclear Energy concluded within the frame- radioactive material. It first published Regula- work of the OECD. This Convention, which is tions for the Safe Transport of Radioactive Ma- regional in character and has 14 Western Euro- terials (Safety Series No. 6) in 1961 for applica- pean States Party to it, was supplemented in 1963 tion to all means of national and international by the Brussels Supplementary Convention. transport. The Regulations since then have been Both the Paris Convention and the Brussels Sup- widely accepted and adopted by competent inter- plementary Convention have been amended by national bodies as binding requirements for the Protocols in 1964 and 1982. transport of radioactive materials. The basic features of the Vienna and Paris The transport of radioactive materials has Conventions are identical. Both are based on the also been dealt with through conventions. A well exclusive and strict liability of the operator of a known example is the International Convention nuclear installation, on limitation of liability in for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS), 1974. It amount and in time, and on the jurisdiction of the regulates, inter alia, the transport of dangerous courts of the installation State. Both Conventions goods including radioactive materials. Article 23 provide for a minimum amount of compensation of the United Nations Convention on the Law of and for financial coverage through insurance or the Sea, 1982, regulates the exercise by foreign other financial security and, in the case of the nuclear-powered ships or ships carrying nuclear Brussels Supplementary Convention, through a substances of the right of innocent passage system of state funding. through the territorial sea of States. Two other Conventions deal with the ques- Safety standards for nuclear merchant tion of liability in the context of marine carriage. ships. Action to reconsider the safety standards for The 1962 Convention on the Liability of Opera- nuclear merchant ships, established by the Interna- tors of Nuclear Ships, which is not yet in force, tional Maritime Organization (IMO) in 1981 has and the 1971 Convention Relating to Civil Li- been instituted. In September 1990, the IAEA Gen- ability in the Field of Maritime Carriage of Nu- eral Conference requested the Director General" to clear Materials. Both Conventions are based on consult, ...with the International Maritime Organi- the principle of strict liability of the operator. zation the plans of the international maritime com- Regarding nuclear-related incidents in outer munity regarding civilian nuclear-powered ships, space, liability for nuclear damage is covered by the need to review the Code of Safety for Nuclear the 1972 Convention on International Liability Merchant Ships in the light of existing nuclear for Damage Caused by Space Objects. It would safety technology, and whether the Code at present govern, inter alia, situations where a space ob- applies to all existing and projected civilian nu- ject is either propelled with nuclear power or clear-powered ships, and if not, the implications carries nuclear objects. In 1992 the UN General of extending the Code to all such ships". Assembly adopted a resolution on the principles

IAEA BULLETIN, 3/1995 19 FEATURES

relevant to the use of nuclear power sources in quirements for effective physical protection. outer space. They apply to nuclear material in domestic use, For nuclear power plants, the Chernobyl ac- transport and storage; to nuclear material in in- cident made it clear that the existing liability ternational transport; and to nuclear facilities in regime is not adequate to ensure equitable and a State. Although these recommendations are not rapid compensation, particularly in the event of binding, their application is required by the large-scale damage. This is because of the re- IAEA in agreements with States that receive as- gime's limited territorial application, its narrow sistance from it. An equivalent requirement has definition of damage, and the low level of guar- been included by a number of States in bilateral anteed compensation under it. nuclear co-operation agreements. The existing regime is being strengthened. In The Convention on the Physical Protection of 1988, a Joint Protocol Relating to the Application Nuclear Material was adopted on 26 October of the Vienna Convention and the Paris Conven- 1979 and entered into force on 8 February 1987. tion was concluded. Its basic aim is to extend the Its scope of application is narrower than the rec- scope of application of both Conventions. It also ommendations, in that the Convention applies resolves potential conflicts of law which could primarily to nuclear material while in interna- result from the simultaneous application of the two tional nuclear transport (which necessarily in- Conventions to the same nuclear accident, notably cludes storage incidental to such transport). in the case of international transport. A Review Conference of Parties to the Con- In 1990, the IAEA Board of Governors de- vention was held in Vienna in September 1992. cided to set up a Standing Committee on Liabil- Among other things, the Conference affirmed ity for Nuclear Damage. It was requested to con- that the Convention provides a sound basis for sider international liability for nuclear damage, physical protection of nuclear material during including international civil liability, interna- international transport and is acceptable in its tional State liability, and the relationship be- current form. The Conference also called upon tween international civil and State liability. the IAEA to organize a meeting to examine the The work of the Standing Committee has IAEA physical protection recommendations in shown broad areas of agreement on proposals for IAEA document INFCIRC/225/Rev. 2, and to the revision of the Vienna Convention. Attention consider the incorporation of further guidance on has shifted mainly to the feasibility of elaborat- such issues as irradiated fuel, nuclear material ing a supplementary funding convention. A contained in waste, and other matters. As a result number of proposals have been considered in this of a Technical Committee meeting in June 1993, respect but no general agreement has been revised recommendations were issued in Sep- reached. The Committee has recommended to tember 1993 (as INFCIRC/225/ Rev.3) that re- the IAEA Board that a diplomatic conference be flect the Committees's views in these respects. convened in 1996 to be devoted to the revision of the Vienna Convention and supplementary fund- ing. The Board is expected to act on the recom- Armed attacks against nuclear installations mendation at its meetings in September 1995. Protocols I and II Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 1949* relate to the protection of Physical protection of nuclear material victims of international armed conflicts and of non-international armed conflicts, respectively. Two international instruments provide the Article 56 of Protocol I and Article 15 of Proto- basis for the physical protection of nuclear mate- col II relate to the protection of, among other rial: a set of recommendations and a Convention, things, nuclear electrical generating stations both developed under IAEA auspices. The protection accorded by the Protocols ap- The set of recommendations was first devel- plies only to a limited category of nuclear instal- oped in 1972 and has been revised on three occa- lations. The phrase "nuclear electrical generat- sions since then: 1975,1977, and 1989. The major ing stations" obviously includes nuclear power purposes of the most recent revision were to give reactors. However, it would not include nuclear equal treatment to the concerns relating to un- research reactors, enrichment facilities, fuel fab- authorized removal of nuclear material and sabo- tage of nuclear facilities; to reflect the existence of the Convention on the Physical Protection of Nu- * The four 1949 Geneva Conventions to which the Protocols clear Material; and to strengthen the recommenda- are additional relate, respectively, to: the amelioration of the wounded and sick in armed forces in the field; the ameliora- tions on several points of standard practice. tion of the conditions of wounded, sick and shipwrecked The recommendations reflect a broad con- members of armed forces at sea; the treatment of prisoners of sensus among IAEA Member States on the re- war; and, the protection of civilian persons in times of war.

20 IAEA BULLETIN, 3/1995 FEATURES rication facilities, reprocessing facilities, and graphical locations where nuclear weapons can spent fuel storage facilities. All such facilities, be tested, deployed, and/or used. particularly the last two, could cause substantial The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nu- radioactive releases if attacked. clear Weapons (NPT), the Treaty for the Prohi- Although the need to prohibit armed attacks bition of Nuclear Weapons in Latin America (the on all nuclear facilities and the urgency of con- Treaty of Tlatelolco), and the South Pacific Nu- cluding an international agreement relating clear Free Zone Treaty (the Treaty of Rarotonga) thereto, seems to be generally recognized, the illustrate the requirements applicable to non-nu- establishment of more comprehensive interna- clear weapon States. They are designed primarily tional rules in this area is still in the process of to prevent horizontal proliferation. These three development. Thus, for example, the IAEA Gen- treaties couple the prohibition on the acquisition eral Conference in 1987 adopted a resolution of nuclear weapons with a requirement that the regarding Protection of Nuclear Installations parties thereto accept IAEA safeguards on all against Armed Attacks. In the preamble of that existing and future nuclear activities. resolution, the General Conference recorded that During the early 1970s, two non-treaty initia- it was " aware of the fact that an armed attack on tives were undertaken by a number of States to a nuclear installation could result in radioactive support the non-proliferation regime. The first releases with grave consequences within and be- group of States, known as the "Zangger Commit- yond the boundaries of the State which has been tee", are all parties to the NPT. The Committee's attacked" and was "convinced of the need to aim was to establish a uniform approach to the prohibit armed attacks on nuclear installations implementation of the obligation contained in Ar- from which such releases could occur and of the ticle ni.2 of the NPT, by defining the source and urgency of concluding an international agree- special fissionable material and the equipment or ment in this regard". material especially designed or prepared for the processing, use or production of special fissionable material, the provision of which requires the appli- The peaceful uses of nuclear energy cation of IAEA safeguards. (The results of this initiative are reproduced in IAEA document The impetus to ensure the peaceful use of INFCIRC/209/Rev. 1 and Adds. 1 and 2.) nuclear energy that finds expression in the The second group of States, which include IAEA Statute and the European Atomic Energy participants in the Zangger Committee initia- Community (Euratom) Treaty has been supple- tive, is known as the London Suppliers' Group mented by various non-proliferation conventions. and includes States that are and are not parties to The ultimate objective of the international the NPT. This Group of States has produced a set community is the achievement of general and of guidelines (reproduced in IAEA document complete disarmament. In the context of nuclear INFCIRC/254) for the export of nuclear material, disarmament, avoidance of vertical proliferation equipment, or technology. Consequently, the (i.e. increases in existing nuclear arsenals) is guidelines set forth additional conditions applica- fostered by the adoption of arms reduction agree- ble to the export of nuclear material, equipment and ments between nuclear-weapon States. The pro- technology that, for example: link the duration of hibition of nuclear weapons is also being sought safeguards to the continued existence of safe- through the adoption of requirements applicable guardable material and equipment regardless of the to all States, regardless of whether they possess duration of the safeguards agreement; require the nuclear weapons and through the adoption of re- application of physical protection measures; re- quirements designed to ensure that those States that quire the exercise of restraint in the transfer of do not have nuclear weapons do not acquire them sensitive facilities, technology, and weapons-us- (prevention of horizontal proliferation). able materials; and impose limitations on the re- Examples of requirements applicable to all transfer of certain exported items. The guidelines States are the Antarctic Treaty; the Treaty Ban- are also intended to remove assurances relating ning Nuclear Weapon Tests in the Atmos- to safeguards and non-proliferation from the phere, in Outer Space and Under Water; the field of commercial competition. Treaty on Principles to Govern the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, Including the Moon and Other Celestial IAEA safeguards system Bodies; and the Treaty on the Prohibition of the Emplacement of Nuclear Weapons and Article III.A.5 of the IAEA Statute author- Other Weapons of Mass Destruction on the izes the Agency "to establish and administer Seabed and the Ocean Floor and in the Subsoil safeguards designed to ensure that special fis- thereof. They are designed to limit the geo- sionable and other materials, services, equip-

IAEA BULLETIN, 3/1995 21 FEATURES

merit, facilities and information made available Safeguards objectives. Safeguards are tech- by the Agency or at its request or under its super- nical means of verifying compliance with legal vision or control are not used in such a way as to obligations relevant to the peaceful uses of nu- further any military purpose; and to apply safe- clear energy. Their objectives are political, that guards, at the request of the Parties, to any bilat- is, to assure the international community of the eral or multilateral arrangement, or at the request peaceful nature of safeguarded nuclear activity of a State, to any of the State's activities in the and to deter the diversion or misuse of safe- field of atomic energy." guarded materials or facilities through the risk of The Agency's safeguards system was thus early detection. conceived as a legally binding scheme of verifi- The system has a number of basic features cation for all IAEA-related nuclear transactions which should be understood. The first is that the which would apply when a State received assis- application of safeguards is primarily but not exclu- tance from or through the IAEA under an sively based on information provided by the State Agency project. Nuclear activities in which the as to the existence of nuclear material or equipment IAEA was not involved would be subject to safe- that should be subject to safeguards. The Agency, guards only on a voluntary and selective basis. however, has a right to undertake special inspec- During the 1970s, the IAEA's safeguards sys- tions to ensure that all nuclear material that is tem underwent a major transformation in character subject to safeguards are in fact safeguarded and for and scope. The change was the result of the devel- that purpose to obtain and have access to additional opment of what is referred to as the "non-prolifera- information and locations to guard against possible tion regime"; that is the set of legal norms and undeclared activities. voluntary undertakings which were developed The second is that safeguards cannot by them- both within and outside of the framework of the selves prevent a violation by a State of its obliga- IAEA to deal with the peaceful uses of nuclear tions not to divert nuclear material from peaceful energy and nuclear weapons proliferation. purposes. The system is designed as an early warn- By virtue of the 1967 Treaty of Tlatelolco ing mechanism to initiate the necessary procedures in Latin America, each party undertakes to use for remedial action in case of violation. Under the exclusively for peaceful purposes the nuclear IAEA Statute, non-compliance with safeguards ob- material and facilities which are under its juris- ligations is to be reported to the United Nations diction and to prohibit and prevent in its terri- Security Council for appropriate action. tory the testing, use, manufacture, production, The third is that safeguards cannot assess the acquisition, receipt, storage, installation, de- future intentions of States. The system can be ployment and possession of any nuclear weap- analogized to a radar device which can only ons. Each party also assumes the obligation to report on the existing situation. negotiate multilateral or bilateral agreements The actual application of safeguards requires with the IAEA for the application of safeguards a contractual agreement between the IAEA and to its nuclear activities. the State in which the system will operate, Of wider significance is the 1968 NPT, which whether the application of the system is the result is of a universal character. It provides that each of a voluntary undertaking by the State, or is in non-nuclear-weapon State party to the Treaty as- fulfilment of a legal obligation under a bilateral sumes a basic obligation not to manufacture, ac- or multilateral agreement. quire, receive or control nuclear weapons or other Safeguards agreements set out the parties' nuclear explosive devices. In addition, such a State basic rights and obligations, relevant to the appli- agrees to accept the safeguards set forth in an agree- cation of safeguards. Detailed implementation ment to be negotiated and concluded with the procedures are found in a technical set of " sub- IAEA in accordance with the latter Statute and its sidiary arrangements", which are tailored to the safeguards system. The exclusive purpose of this specific requirements of safeguarded facilities. agreement is the verification of the fulfilment by Subsidiary arrangements are implementing in- the State of its treaty obligation to prevent the struments that do not require approval of the diversion of nuclear energy uses to nuclear IAEA Board of Governors. They are concluded weapons or other nuclear explosive devices. between the IAEA Secretariat and the State Party Additionally, the parties to the Rarotonga simultaneously with or subsequent to the conclu- Treaty in Southeast Asia and the Pacific and the sion of the safeguards agreement. Subsidiary ar- Brazilian-Argentine Agreement on the Exclusively rangements are considered confidential. They Peaceful Utilization of Nuclear Energy have also are accessible only to the IAEA Secretariat and made a non-proliferation commitment. Thus, for the State Party. They are not available to other States parties to these agreements, acceptance of Member States, except that specific information IAEA safeguards that are comprehensive in scope relating to safeguards implementation may be has become obligatory in character. given to the Board of Governors to the extent

22 IAEA BULLETIN, 3/1995 FEATURES necessary for the IAEA to fulfil its responsibili- mission by a State; or upon the conclusion of a ties in implementing the agreement. supply agreement between two or more States Categories of safeguards agreements. Four that requires the application of IAEA safeguards. categories of safeguards agreements have been Agreements in this category cover only specified entered into by the IAEA. facilities and materials. Assurances by the IAEA The first category is with non-nuclear- are necessarily limited to the safeguarded facilities weapon States that have made a non-prolifera- or materials and do not extend to cover the totality tion commitment, e.g. States Party to the NPT, of the State's nuclear activities. the Treaty of Tlatelolco, the Treaty of Rarotonga, The rights and obligations of the IAEA and the or the Brazilian-Argentine Agreement on the Ex- State under this category of agreements are also clusively Peaceful Utilization Of Nuclear En- based on guidelines adopted by the Board of Gov- ergy. These safeguards agreements cover all the ernors (INFCIRC/66/Rev.2 and its earlier ver- nuclear activities of the State. In Argentina and sions). These guidelines were the first to be devel- Brazil, IAEA safeguards are carried out under a oped for the purpose of concluding safeguards Quadripartite Agreement, which is sui generis in agreements. Unlike those developed later for NPT nature, between the two countries, the IAEA, and safeguards agreements, they deal only with princi- the Brazilian-Argentine Agency for the Ac- ples and procedures of applying safeguards. counting and Control of Nuclear Material The basic undertaking of the State under (ABACC). The other aforementioned agree- these agreements, however, is not to use any ments are standard in nature and are based on material, equipment, facilities or other items un- guidelines (INFCIRC/153) adopted for that pur- der safeguards in such a way as to further any pose by the IAEA Board of Governors. The military purpose. This undertaking, which is guidelines serve as the basis for the structure and based on the language of the Statute, is under- content of these agreements. stood by the IAEA to prohibit the manufacture or Application of safeguards under these agree- possession of any nuclear explosive device, and ments is linked to the safeguarded material. not to permit the withdrawal of any nuclear ma- Safeguards are terminated by the IAEA under terial subject to safeguards. In most of these these agreements upon determination that the agreements, the duration of safeguards and of the material is no longer usable for any nuclear ac- agreement itself is linked to the safeguarded ma- tivity relevant from the point of view of safe- terial and facilities. Safeguards continue to apply guards, or has become practically irrecoverable. as long as the material or facilities can be used for Safeguards are terminated upon transfer of the any nuclear activity which warrant their applica- safeguarded nuclear material out of the State to tion. Safeguards generally follow the nuclear another jurisdiction. material upon its transfer out of the State. Under the Treaty of Rarotonga and the Quad- The third category of agreements is with ripartite Agreement, Parties are not to provide nuclear-weapon States. All five nuclear weapon any State with nuclear material or equipment that States identified in the NPT — China, France, require the application of safeguards, unless sub- the Soviet Union (now its successor, Russia), the ject to the IAEA's safeguards. NPT Parties are United Kingdom, and the United States — have under a similar obligation, but only with regard accepted the application of safeguards on some to supplies to non-nuclear-weapon States. Provi- or all of their peaceful nuclear activities. These sion of nuclear material and equipment to nu- agreements are not designed to verify non-prolif- clear-weapon States does not require the applica- eration, but are meant to broaden the IAEA's tion of IAEA safeguards under the NPT. Under safeguards experience, to affirm that nuclear- the Treaty of Tlatelolco, Parties are under no weapon States are not rewarded by being exempt obligation to require the application of IAEA from safeguards on their peaceful activities and, safeguards on supplies of nuclear material and most importantly, to establish a precedent for equipment to other States. on-site verification in the nuclear-weapon States. The application of safeguards depends Under these agreements, facilities or nuclear equally upon the duration of the safeguards material in facilities notified to the IAEA by agreement. All the above agreements have provi- the State concerned are offered for the applica- sions stating they shall remain in force as long as tion of safeguards. The agreements provide for the State is Party to the respective Treaty. the possibility of withdrawal of such facilities The second category of agreements is with or material from the application of safeguards. non-nuclear-weapon States that have not made a All of these agreements are of unlimited dura- binding non-proliferation commitment. These tion but provide for the right of termination agreements are normally entered into upon the upon six month's notice if the purpose for conclusion of a Project Agreement between the which the agreement was intended can no IAEA and a Member State; upon unilateral sub- longer be served.

IAEA BULLETIN, 3/1995 23 FEATURES

The fourth category is with non-nuclear- The case of Iraq occurred in the aftermath of weapon States which have not made a previous the Gulf war and included the revelation that Iraq non-proliferation commitment but which are had constructed a large undeclared nuclear pro- ready to make that commitment as a part of the gramme, including undeclared enrichment facili- safeguards agreement. No guidelines have been ties. From this case, it became apparent that the developed for this category. One agreement of IAEA safeguards system — though effective this type was concluded with Albania before it with regard to declared activities — is incom- became Party to the NPT. The basic undertaking plete insofar as its ability to detect undeclared under this agreement is not to use any nuclear activities. Since that time, the focus of the IAEA material or facility within the territory of Alba- has been to adopt measures designed to nia, or under its jurisdiction or control for the strengthen the safeguards system and in particu- manufacture of any nuclear explosive device or lar to develop an ability for the system to detect to further any military purpose. Safeguards un- and have access to undeclared activities. Impor- der the agreement continue to apply as long as tant measures already have been taken. such material or facilities can be used for any Following recommendations made by the nuclear activity that can warrant their applica- IAEA's Standing Advisory Group on Safe- tion. Albania is obliged not to transfer nuclear guards Implementation, in April 1993, the material, facilities or relevant technological infor- Agency instituted a safeguards development pro- mation to another State before the IAEA has con- gramme (Programme 93+2) to consider the fea- firmed that it has made appropriate arrangements to sibility of further measures to strengthen and apply safeguards. The agreement has an initial du- improve the cost-effectiveness of safeguards. At ration of 25 years. Termination of the agreement, its March 1995 session, the IAEA Board en- however, does not affect the continuing application dorsed the general direction of the Programme of safeguards on material and facilities subject to and requested specific proposals, which were safeguards at the date of termination. submitted to the Board in June 1995. In June, the Technical features and measures. The Board took note of the Agency's plan to imple- IAEA's safeguards system under any of the four ment at an early date the measures identified by categories of agreements has three basic features: the Secretariat as being within the scope of exist- material accounting, containment and surveil- ing legal authority of comprehensive safeguards lance, and on-site inspection. based on INFCIRC/153 (corrected), with the un- Material accounting establishes the quanti- derstanding that elaboration of the implementa- ties of nuclear material present within defined tion arrangements for, and clarification of con- areas and the changes in those quantities that take cerns about, them would require consultations place within defined periods of time. Contain- between the Secretariat and individual Member ment and surveillance measures are designed to States. The Secretariat intends to submit specific take advantage of physical barriers such as walls, proposals relating to those measures that require containers, tanks or pipes, to restrict or control complementary authority for their implementa- the movement of or access to nuclear materials. tion to the IAEA Board in December 1995. Such measures help to reduce the probability that undetected movements of nuclear material or equipment take place. Surveillance is used to IAEA verification under the UN Charter detect undeclared movements of nuclear materi- als, tampering with containment, fabrication of The IAEA's nuclear inspections in Iraq were false information or interference with safeguards undertaken in accordance with resolutions of the devices. The aim of on-site inspection is verifica- UN Security Council. Following the cessation of tion of the IAEA's information. The intensity and hostilities in the Gulf War, the Security Council frequency of inspections are usually specified in — acting under Chapter VII of the United Na- the safeguards agreement and vary with the type of tions Charter — adopted Resolution 687 on 3 facility inspected. April 1991. Paragraph 12 of that Resolution re- Reporting to the UN Security Council. Arti- quired Iraq to unconditionally agree not to ac- cle XII of the IAEA 'Statute requires, among other quire or develop nuclear weapons or nuclear- things, that the Board of Governors report to the weapons-usable material or any subsystems or UN Security Council and General Assembly as components or any research, development, sup- well as to all IAEA Member States any non-com- port or manufacturing facilities related thereto; pliance with an IAEA safeguards agreement which to provide a declaration of the locations, it finds to have occurred. In two instances, Iraq and amounts, and types of all items referred to above; the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the to place all of its nuclear-weapons-usable mate- Board of Governors has adopted resolutions re- rials under the exclusive control, for custody and cording its finding of non-compliance. removal, of the IAEA, acting with the assistance

24 IAEA BULLETIN, 3/1995 FEATURES and co-operation of a Special Commission to be mation obtained from seismological monitoring established pursuant to the Resolution; to accept (and from other monitoring — e.g., of radionu- on-site inspection and the destruction, removal clides in the atmosphere — that may be agreed to and rendering harmless of all the above-men- be included in the CTBT). It is possible that the tioned items; and to accept a plan, to be prepared CTBT will assign a number of the verification by the IAEA Director General, for the future activities under the Treaty to the IAEA. ongoing monitoring and verification of its com- Secondly, consideration is being given to the pliance with these undertakings. development of a treaty that would ban the future Operative paragraph 13 of the Resolution re- production of plutonium and highly enriched quested the IAEA Director General, with the uranium for use in nuclear weapons (the so- assistance and co-operation of the Special Com- called "Cut-Off Treaty"). Last year, the General mission, to carry out immediate on-site inspec- Assembly of the United Nations adopted resolu- tion of Iraq's nuclear capabilities based on Iraq's tion A/Res/48/75 L, which, among other things: declarations and any additional locations desig- " Recommend[ed] the negotiation in the most nated by the Special Commission; to develop and appropriate international forum of a non-dis- carry out a plan for the destruction, removal, or criminatory, multilateral and internationally and rendering harmless of all items referred to in effectively verifiable treaty banning the produc- operative paragraph 12; and to develop a plan for tion of fissile material for nuclear weapons or the future ongoing monitoring and verification of other nuclear explosive devices; Iraq's compliance with operative paragraph 12, "Requested] the International Atomic En- including an inventory of all nuclear material in ergy Agency to provide assistance for examina- Iraq subject to the IAEA's verification and inspec- tion of verification arrangements for such a tion to confirm that IAEA safeguards cover all treaty as required; and nuclear activities in Iraq. " Call[ed] upon all States to demonstrate their These provisions of Resolution 687 were sup- commitment to the objectives of a non-discrimi- plemented by Security Council Resolution 707, natory, multilateral and internationally and ef- adopted on 15 August 1991, which imposed further fectively verifiable treaty banning the production restrictions on permissible nuclear activities in Iraq. of fissile material for nuclear weapons or other In carrying out its inspections in Iraq, the nuclear explosive devices". IAEA had more extensive verification rights The third initiative relates to the possibility than it has under safeguards agreements. This has that the plutonium and highly enriched uranium been outlined in an Exchange of Letters between that was formerly contained in nuclear weapons the United Nations and Iraq on the rights and but is no longer required for that purpose will be privileges necessary for the IAEA and the Spe- submitted to IAEA safeguards by some or all of cial Commission to perform their activities under the nuclear-weapon States. Resolution 687. The various plans required by Resolution 687 were approved by Security Council Resolutions 699 and 715. It should be A changing progressive picture noted that the plan for on-going monitoring also contains extensive rights and privileges for the The international legal order for nuclear en- IAEA in comparison with safeguards agreements. ergy is characterized by a mix of legally binding rules and agreements and advisory standards and regulations. This mix is constantly changing. Other verification initiatives What were recently non-binding standards are today binding commitments. The conventions in The international community is currently the area of physical protection and for the notifi- considering three arms control/non-proliferation cation of a nuclear accident and emergency assis- initiatives with potential impact on the IAEA's tance are but some examples. verification activities. First, a Committee of the The fact that many regulations are still non- UN Conference on Disarmament (CD) is in the binding should not be a matter for concern. Many process of developing a Comprehensive Nuclear States have accepted such standards as a basis for Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT). Although the work of their national legislation. By doing so, they have, the CD Committee is still in progress, it seems in effect, voluntarily undertaken to comply with likely that the CTBT being developed by it will international norms that they formally view as include seismological monitoring, on-site in- recommendations because of their belief that it is spections to ascertain the nature of events that in their best interest to do so. have not been satisfactorily explained, on-site Long at the centre of the process, the IAEA monitoring of large non-nuclear explosions, and will remain actively engaged in the progressive an International Data Centre to process the infor- international development of nuclear law. •

IAEA BULLETIN, 3/1995 25 FEATURES

Radiation protection services: From the laboratory to the field

From monitoring exposures to supporting cooperative projects, the IAEA's activities are being tailored to meet new demands

by l^evelopments commanding global attention External exposure monitoring. About 400 Robert Ouvrard over the past decade have elevated interest in IAEA staff members are routinely monitored and Fernando issues of nuclear and radiation safety. In various for external exposure, 300 from the Depart- Lopez-Lizana ways, States today are placing greater emphasis ment of Safeguards and 100 from the IAEA's on cooperative projects and services designed to laboratories. Another 400 individuals typically establish or strengthen national capabilities for are monitored in connection with particular effective radiological protection. assignments. These include about 150 techni- At the international level, the Agency has cal cooperation experts, 150 specialists taking long provided extensive safety-related serv- part in safety missions, and 100 scientific fel- ices. In the field of radiation safety, the work lows and trainees. has involved the formulation of standards and The RSSS also provides dosimetry services advisory missions, for example. In 1979, the to some Member States under technical coopera- IAEA set up a Radiation Safety Services Sec- tion projects or through a joint programme run tion (RSSS) to technically support activities in with the World Health Organization (WHO). In radiation protection. The work involves the total, about 2800 persons are monitored yearly. operation of radiation protection laboratories, (See table.) the provision of analytical and support serv- To strengthen its services, the RSSS re- ices, and operation of an emergency response cently acquired two new thermoluminescent system. (See box.) In recent years, for exam- dosimeter readers for the determination of ex- ple, these services have supported the ternal radiation doses. It is also working with Agency's post-Chernobyl radiological assess- the Hungarian Atomic Energy Research Insti- ments, as well as its nuclear inspections in tute on the calibration and development of a Iraq. This article takes a closer look at activi- new specific algorithm for neutron dosimeters. ties, specifically those related to radiation Another area of development is computerized monitoring, field projects, and emergency record-keeping, where a new system has been planning and response. instituted. A data management system was cre- ated, for example, to efficiently monitor individ- ual annual exposures and ensure that they com- Radiation monitoring services ply with existing radiation protection require- ments. The programme further enables analysis The IAEA provides radiation monitoring of trends in radiation exposures. services for its own staff whose work can involve Radiation workers whose extremities may be exposure to radiation, and for personnel partici- exposed to high doses are provided with specific pating in Agency-supported projects, predomi- dosimeters. Such workers include, for example, nately in developing countries. The monitoring those who handle solutions that emit high energy system covers external exposure as well as inter- beta radiation (e.g. phosphorus-32), or medical nal contamination, and it extends to laboratory staff involved in specific X-ray techniques. The and field services. dosimeters consist of lithium fluoride crystals mounted on finger rings which are assembled and processed at the Vienna International Centre (VIC) Mr. Ouvrard is Head of the Radiation Safety Services laboratory. Whereas the need for such dosimeters Section of the IAEA's Division of Nuclear Safety, and Mr. is relatively limited among IAEA staff, the demand Lopez-Lizana is an IAEA staff member formerly in the Section. from developing countries has increased during

26 IAEA BULLETIN, 3/1995 FEATURES

Countries IAEA technical co- IAEA/WHO joint receiving radiation IAEA Radiation Safety Services operation projects dosimetry programme dosimetry services The IAEA's Radiation Safety Services Cameroon Afghanistan in 1994 Section (RSSS) was created in 1979 to support Cuba Bangladesh its activities in radiation protection. Main tasks Niger Djibouti include: Panama Egypt Sierra Leone Maldives Islands • operating radiation protection laboratories Sri Lanka Nepal to meet measurement requirements of the United Arab Emirates Nigeria IAEA and its Member States; • maintaining instrumentation capabilities Pakistan Yemen for radiation protection purposes, and for supporting technical cooperation projects in areas of radiation safety; • providing training and advisory services in radiation protection; • operating an emergency response system to assist Member States in discharging their obligations under two post-Chernobyl con- ventions related to early notification of a nuclear accident and provision of emer- gency assistance.

To fulfill these responsibilities, the RSSS is structured into three units having interrelated support roles:

• The Vienna International Centre (VIC) Health Physics Laboratory Unit. Re- sponsibilities cover personal dose records, external dosimetry; monitoring equipment loans; training in radiation protection; ex- ternal support services; field missions; and technical cooperation projects. • The Seibersdorf Health Physics Group Unit. Responsibilities cover laboratory surveys; internal dosimetry (whole body counting and bioassay); calibration of monitoring equipment; laboratory training in radiation protection; field missions; and on-call duties. • The Emergency Response Unit. Respon- sibilities cover supporting IAEA obliga- tions under relevant international conven- tions; operating the Agency's emergency response system; and supporting technical cooperation projects.

recent years. Up to 1600 dosimeters have been counter at the highest technical level, two new IAEA radiation safety dispatched annually. Phoswich detectors were purchased. Also ac- services support Internal contamination monitoring. The training and related quired was a thyroid uptake monitoring system activities at the RSSS operates the whole-body counter, which for surveys of radioactive iodine incorporation in Agency's Seibersdorf is installed at the IAEA's Laboratories in the event of a nuclear accident. Laboratories. Seibersdorf, Austria. Measurements are done This whole-body counter proved invaluable using the stretcher geometry assisted by four during the period shortly after the Chernobyl sodium-iodine (Nal) detectors for gamma accident. From May to December 1986, a study emitters and two Phoswich detectors for low was conducted on individuals working at the energy photon emitters (which is the case for IAEA Seibersdorf Laboratories to assess the im- plutonium). To maintain the whole-body mediate impact of the accident in this area. This

IAEA BULLETIN, 3/1995 27 FEATURES

study confirmed, as observed in other countries, individual exposures were kept to a minimum. that the actual individual intake was below the Major tasks during these missions dealt with the expected value (sometimes by a factor of three) safe handling of nuclear fuel materials, and fresh obtained from practical environmental measure- or spent fuel elements. Agency radiation experts ments and using theoretical models. During the played a particularly valuable role in the opera- same period, collaboration was initiated with the tion to remove spent fuel from Iraq.* Individual Austrian Research Centre for the measurement of radiation exposures among the 170 people in- various groups of the local population. In Novem- volved in the mission were kept reasonably low, far ber 1986, seven months after the Chernobyl acci- below the level which could have been expected for dent, a study was undertaken on the daily caesium- such a difficult operation. This testifies to the 137 urine excretion from IAEA staff. The observed cooperative preparatory work and the high level mean daily value was 12.2 becquerel per day of expertise available during the operation. (Bq/d), corresponding to 0.67% of the whole body content, in good agreement with the values re- ported in international surveys (range of 0.3% to Laboratories and related facilities 1.3 %). The result was also in good agreement with the calculated daily intake (from food) derived The IAEA operates a number of laboratories from body measurements done on the same sub- where radioactive materials are or may be han- jects. In April 1990, at the request of the Byelorus- dled. They are principally located in Seibersdorf sian authorities, measurements were performed on and Monaco, with smaller facilities at approved four of their nationals. locations in the Vienna International Centre. Quality assurance. Quality control of A radio-chemical laboratory for the measure- measurements is periodically conducted ment of alpha emitters in urine has been opera- through intercomparison exercises with exter- tional since 1993 and located at Seibersdorf. nal institutions. These have been done, for ex- About 350 samples are analyzed yearly for alpha ample, with institutes in Germany, namely the contamination. In addition, a gamma spectrome- University of Saarland in 1985; the University try facility is used for analyzing more than 500 of Frankfurt in 1989; and the nuclear research urine samples a year for gamma contamination. centre in Karlsruhe in 1992. The RSSS has set up a comprehensive moni- toring programme to ensure compliance with good radiation protection practices and mainte- Support in field projects and missions nance of proper working conditions. This pro- gramme concentrates on activities at the IAEA's Two highly publicized cases have illustrated Safeguards Analytical Laboratory (SAL) where how the IAEA's radiation safety services are plutonium and transuranium radioisotopes are han- applied in the field: the International Chernobyl dled. About 12,000 smears and 700 air monitoring Project, and the nuclear inspections in Iraq under filters are checked yearly for contamination. terms of UN Security Council resolutions. The RSSS is also in charge of a scanner unit Chernobyl project. During 1990-91, the which measures the plutonium content of radio- RSSS was involved in the monitoring of indi- active wastes generated by the Seibersdorf Labo- viduals in nine selected villages affected by the ratories and stored in drums. A special computer Chernobyl accident. From May to December program has been developed that provides neces- 1990, about 12,000 individual dosimeters were sary data and results, together with graphs show- distributed in cooperation with Russian experts. ing the physical distribution of activity and den- At the same time, the instrument's purpose and sity in measured waste drums. This makes it the project's aims were explained to the people. possible to localize, if needed, higher activity During the same period, the RSSS organized "clusters" inside any drum. From 1981 to 1994, a campaign of internal contamination monitoring more than 250 drums were measured in this in- among the population. With a mobile whole- stallation. body counter provided by France, four teams worked in shifts and often under rather poor environmental conditions to conduct about Radiation monitoring equipment 10,000 individual measurements. Results were used in subsequent studies. To fulfill its monitoring and assistance tasks, Iraq. In May 1991, the RSSS was requested the RSSS makes use of various types of equip- to take responsibility for radiation protection during IAEA missions in Iraq. The work in- volved providing equipment, advice, and assis- *See "Nuclear inspections in Iraq: Removing final stocks of tance to team members, as well as ensuring that irradiated fuel", IAEA Bulletin Vol. 36, No. 3 (1994).

28 IAEA BULLETIN, 3/1995 FEATURES

merit. They include 50 contamination monitors, Other activities have included: 45 dose rate meters, seven hand monitors, six count rate meters, three multichannel analyzers, • assisting authorities in 1987 in connection and 100 electronic personal dosimeters. All with the accident in Goiania, Brazil, that in- equipment is checked and calibrated yearly, with volved a large caesium-137 teletherapy the assistance of the Dosimetry Unit at Seibers- source. The IAEA provided both equipment dorf. A loan service has been established to re- and expert advisory services. spond to staff demand. • coordinating the receipt, assessment, and dis- In addition, the RSSS provides users, as patch of data in 1992 in connection with the needed, with practical handbooks for specific widely reported incident at a nuclear plant equipment; tests new equipment loaned by near St. Petersburg, Russia; suppliers, in view of their potential use either • assisting Vietnamese authorities in March for internal purposes or in the framework of 1993 in dealing with the overexposure of an technical cooperation projects; develops spe- individual conducting research with a 15 cial indigenous instrumentation, for its own MeV electron beam. The Agency arranged, use; and provides advice on radiation protec- through the ERU, for the patient to receive tion equipment. A database has been prepared specialized treatment at an institution in for this purpose, and now contains more than France. 600 entries. • transmitting notification that the IAEA re- Training activities. IAEA training activi- ceived from Russian authorities in 1993 of ties in radiation protection frequently draw upon the accident at the Tomsk facility. A team of the expertise of RSSS staff for lectures, practical IAEA experts was sent to the site to assess the exercises, and monitoring demonstrations, for situation. example. This has been the case, for example, for • helping Estonian authorities in late 1994 to introductory courses on IAEA safeguards, and arrange for an international team of experts in for radiation protection courses under Agency connection with an incident involving a stolen technical cooperation projects. caesium-137 source. The incident had re- In addition, new staff and visiting scientific sulted in one death and several overexposures fellows at the Seibersdorf Laboratories receive among the general population. training tailored to the requirements of their tasks. Responding to new needs

Emergency Response Unit Over the past 15 years, the IAEA's activities in areas of radiation protection have expanded After the Chernobyl accident in 1986, considerably in the face of growing demands for States approved two international conventions expert assistance and services. Initially foreseen which placed responsibilities on the IAEA for to deal only with the Agency's internal require- the establishment of an Emergency Response ments, the RSSS increasingly is called upon to Unit. The unit, which is operated by the RSSS, support cooperative projects and missions. additionally supports the efforts of IAEA A number of developments today point to- Member States to meet their obligations under ward new demands ahead. The implementation these conventions, which address the early no- of the new International Basic Safety Standards tification of a nuclear accident and the provi- for Protection Against Ionizing Radiation and sion of assistance in the case of a radiological the Safety of Radiation Sources is foreseen to emergency. demand the monitoring of a wider group of indi- At the IAEA's headquarters, a dedicated fa- viduals and the study of new dosimetry concepts. cility contains communication and computer Overall in areas of radiation protection, greater equipment, as well as the documentation and emphasis further is being placed on quality as- databases that would be needed to deal with an surance and control. Also increasingly evident is emergency. a growing need for practical training and related Two exercises have been conducted, in April services, especially in developing countries, 1990 and in January 1992, involving Agency where national radiation protection infrastruc- staff and those from Member States, other UN tures are being established. organizations, and diplomatic missions to the In these areas, among others, the IAEA's IAEA. Results were used to improve the emer- established radiation protection services pro- gency response system, in terms of its resources vide a solid basis for responding to emerging and facilities, operational procedures, and com- requirements for technical expertise and munication capabilities. support. •

IAEA BULLETIN, 3/1995 29 SPECIAL REPORT

Measure for measure: The NPT and the road ahead

Yielding overall positive results, the 1995 NPT Conference extended the Treaty indefinitely and underscored the IAEA's roles

by Berhanykun n before the Treaty on the Non-Prolifera- the achievements as they relate to the evolving Andemicael, tion of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) took effect in role and responsibilities of the IAEA, and out- Merle Opelz, and 1970, the IAEA was an integral component of lines those issues of relevance to the Agency on Jan Priest the world's efforts against the spread of nuclear which consensus could not be reached. weapons. The NPT significantly expanded the world's nuclear verification system and the Agency's central role, to the extent that today NPT extension: Options and decision nearly all of the IAEA's safeguards agreements are concluded in connection with the Treaty. On The indefinite extension of the NPT, which that basis alone, the outcome of the NPT Review originally was given a 25-year lifespan, was by and Extension Conference in May 1995 was of no means a foregone conclusion. In fact, very major importance to the Agency and the interna- few delegates or observers at the opening of the tional community it serves. Conference would have been ready to bet on that On 11 May 1995, the Conference decided to outcome. On the other hand, there were also few extend the Treaty indefinitely, with greater ac- who did not wish to see the Treaty given a long countability in future review conferences about its lease of life, even its greatest critics. implementation. It further adopted a set of Princi- Various options were announced or proposed ples and Objectives for Nuclear Non-Proliferation in addition to indefinite extension. In the months and Disarmament, and a resolution on the Middle before the Conference opened, Venezuela an- East. (See box.) The Conference, however, was not nounced an option that would extend the Treaty able to adopt a Final Declaration. for another 25-year period on the same terms and Overall, as IAEA Director General Hans Blix conditions it was originally concluded. There has pointed out, the NPT Conference sent some was uncertainty, however, whether the Treaty's welcome overriding messages. It reconfirmed that provisions could be interpreted to provide for the the ultimate objective of the Treaty is a nuclear- necessary subsequent extension conferences. By weapon free world, and supported the "Atoms for the third week of the Conference, the Venezue- Peace" approach for the use and transfer of peace- lan approach was replaced by two formally pro- ful nuclear technology consistent with NPT provi- posed options to go alongside the one for indefi- sions. For the IAEA, this points to the continued nite extension. The first option, introduced by importance of its existing, and in some cases ex- Indonesia, called for extending the Treaty for panding, roles in areas of verification and safe- rolling fixed periods of 25 years, with review guards, nuclear safety, waste disposal, transfer of conferences convened every 5 years. The second nuclear technology, and technical assistance. option, introduced by Mexico, proposed indefi- This article takes a closer look at the delibera- nite extension tied to a number of commitments, tions and decisions of the 1995 NPT Review and the attainment of which would be reviewed every Extension Conference. In so doing, it focuses on 5 years. Well into the Conference, Canada took the initiative to circulate a draft decision for indefi- nite extension through which States could indi- Mr. Andemicael is the Representative of the IAEA Director cate the position they would take should the General to the United Nations in New York. Ms. Opelz is question come to a vote. In the end it was through Head of the IAEA Office in Geneva. Ms. Priest is a senior officer in the IAEA Division of External Relations at IAEA this initiative that the Conference was able to headquarters in Vienna. decide that a majority existed for indefinite ex-

30 IAEA BULLETIN, 3/1995 INSIDE TECHNICAL COOPERATION

September 1995 CONTENTS Ready for partnership

Ready for partnership ... 1 when Lyndon Baines Johnson of its technical assistance activi- rT_T, ., . „ spoke of the need to "open the ties was dominated by building UN family ties 1 doors of opportunity" for people, capacity to utilize nuclear tech- More dried fish, not DDT . 2 he w™ ^ to.add *at theY nologies in scientific and research applications. must also be equipped to walk Better harvests with less ..3 through those doors". From its in- As other UN agencies were busy ception in 1957, some years before designing and delivering devel- A model vehicle 4 LBJ became president of the USA, opment projects, IAEA technical the International Atomic Energy assistance built basic infrastruc- Home improvement 5 Agency took on the twin task of ture—national institutions, re- making nuclear technologies search units, expertise and skills Ghana sees benefits 7 available to member countries at all levels, interaction with other and of enabling recipients to use countries—so that each country Search for sleeping genes . . 8 them safely. For decades the focus would have the capacity to ab- sorb and apply nuclear tech- niques to resolve local problems. The option, you could say, was thrust upon the Agency. Unlike other development sectors, it was clear that few countries had even a semblance of the required capacity. But beyond that, the IAEA reasoned, there was not a strong justification for transferring technologies that recipients would be forever dependent on foreign experts to use.

"Anybody who is involved in eco- nomic development anywhere in the world ... knows how critical hu- man and institutional capacity is to the development effort and the chances of success," Edward V. K. Marine research: deploying a sediment trap Jaycox, World Bank Vice President for the Africa Region,said in a 1993 UN family ties continued on page 4

A three-week cruise on the This is all work and no play. As ment to gather water samples at Caspian Sea this summer may the ship moves slowly from the various depths and doing a num- sound enjoyable but would mis- shallow northern to the deeper ber of measurements and experi- construe what is happening on middle and then the very deep ments. the Azerbaijan research vessel basin in the south, the passengers Alif Gadgiev rented by the IAEA. are using sophisticated equip- continued on page 6 BANGLADESH: More dried fish not DDT

fact it embraces other foods which are treated with other toxic substances after harvest.

Bangladesh is a least developed country (LDC) as defined by the UN, but in nuclear terms it is more advanced than many in the developing category. The key reason is governmental commit- ment to invest in the atom. Apart from the irradiation facility, it op- erates a research reactor, a linear accelerator and a neutron gener- ator. The build-up of capacity to absorb nuclear technical help be- gan when an atomic energy cen- tre was set up in Dhaka in 1965, when the country was still East Pakistan.

Bangladesh scientists recently Dried fish is an important source made a frightening find. Dried of protein BAEC, formed in 1973, two years fish sold across the country con- after separation from Pakistan, tained DDT. Some samples ana- has set up many facilities (includ- lyzed at the Agency-established the pesticide from has not been ing an institute of nuclear medi- Pesticide Residue Laboratory of established. Despite its long cine and 11 nuclear medicine the Bangladesh Atomic Energy name, dichlorodiphenyl trichlo- centres, a radiation testing labo- Commission (BAEC) had 100 roethane, DDT is based on a sim- ratory, and an atomic energy re- times what was the permissible ple compound found in natural search facility) and guided an level before DDT use was interna- gas and can be produced in a extensive research and develop- tionally banned, including in backyard laboratory. The dam- ment programme. It can now Bangladesh, some 20 years ago. age it can do to human health is train scientists, engineers and By then, DDT—the oldest syn- considerable. But what to do, be- technicians in nuclear physics, thetic organic pesticide and the yond policing and cracking down chemistry, electronics, medicine, most widely used worldwide— on the use of the already banned radiation biology, isotope appli- had got into virtually everything substance? cations in agriculture and indus- alive, from the eggs of soaring try and other fields—for its own eagles to fish several kilometers activities as well for others in the down in the oceans. It was re- Happily Bangladesh does have public and private sectors. IAEA ported that by the early 1970s the the means to preserve dried fish technical co-operation assists in- milk of most mothers in the for many months, without using country group training and funds United States had so much DDT DDT: a demonstration and partly fellowships abroad for top spe- that, under US commercial regu- commercial multi-purpose (food cialists lations, it could be prevented and medical supplies) irradiation from crossing from one state to facility. The 80 000 curie Russian- BAEC's institute of food and ra- another. built plant, paid for from TC diation biology began research funds, began operating in March on human tissue grafting in 1985, 1993. Sited in Chittagong, in the with IAEA technical co-opera- The DDT in the dried fish, Bang- heart of the fishing region, it tion help. Over the years items ladesh's main source of animal could treat all the dried fish the from its tissue bank—of bones, protein, did not get there by country produces. Irradiation af- cartilage, embryonic tissue, liga- chance from a residual. It was put ter packaging would keep the ments, skin—sterilized by radia- there, by traders, to kill insect lar- food undamaged by larvae and tion, have been successfully used vae that normally infest the sun cleansed of pathogens as well. on more than 400 patients in dried fish and reduce them to The government's emerging Bangladesh hospitals. Tissue bones in a few weeks. Dipping in strategy to ensure that DDT is not banking has developed over the (or spraying) DDT could extend used includes both compelling past 40 years and today there are the shelflife of the commodity to the traders to use the facility— more than 100 banks worldwide. several months. Where they get and enabling them to do so. In One of them is in this LDC. .bigger harvests with less fertilizer

A major new drive by the Vienna- based Joint Division of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the IAEA is to increase crop yields while using less chemical fertilizer which is both expensive and harmful to the en- vironment. In Bangladesh the ul- timate target crop is rice. But it has started on legumes, the prin- cipal protein source of the poor. Legumes have the natural ability to absorb nitrogen not only from the soil (and from fertilizers put there) but from the air. In fact this "fixing" of atmospheric nitrogen (N ) is done by a bacterium called rhizobium in the soil. All legume plants seem to recognize rhizobia as alien, and form nodules around the bacteria at their roots. has none of the environmentally Bangladeshi farmer and family But the bacteria are benign and harmful effects of commercial ni- at the edge of his lentil field. those in nodules go on fixing N2 trogen fertilizer. Lentils, chickpea in forms usable by the plant. and groundnut are grown on each able to produce 5-8 tonnes a 357,000 hectares in Bangladesh year of bacteria-plus-carrier The more nodules the better the (roughly half the area covered by which would be sufficient for the plant thrives and the more pro- all pulses). The amount of biofer- early trials. Decisions on large tein it provides for humans and tilizer (rhizobia plus peat) scale production of biofertilizer animals. The number of nodules needed, if chemicals are replaced and a large scale programme for is proportionate to the density of in the total area, is estimated to be sustainable legume production rhizobia in the soil. Since 1988 750 tonnes a year. will not be taken until all the find- IAEA technical co-operation has ings of the first two years (1995 aided the Bangladesh Institute of Until the introduction of Model and 1996) are in. But the govern- Nuclear Agriculture (BINA) in a Projects (see "A Model Vehicle", ment is committed to introduce a project to improve its rhyzobiol- page 3), such experimental find- biofertilizer industry in Bangla- ogy capacity and take on the re- ings might have remained in the desh. It is hoped to attract private search and development to institute, waiting for someone to investors in setting up a commer- maximize this gift of nature. come along and use them. In this cial scale plant with technical and BINA has identified elite geno- case a model project called biofer- scientific support from BINA. types of grain legumes which, in tilizers for increased legume produc- combination with appropriate tion was launched this year. With IAEA technical co-operation will strains of rhizobia, can fix greater seed money and some technical provide expert services to sup- amounts of nitrogen than the tra- help from TC in the first three port the production of high qual- ditionally used local cultivars, years, it is expected to generate its ity biofertilizer, as well as some and shown that yields of chick- own funds through a contract equipment and supplies, mainly pea, groundnut and lentil can be mechanism with the private sec- inoculum fermenters and N la- increased significantly. tor to sustain its future activities. belled fertilizer for field testing. Its total contribution over three Using a unique nitrogen-15 (N ^ The idea is for BINA, the Ministry years, including fellowships and technique developed by the of Agriculture and private com- scientific visits, is budgeted at FAO/IAEA Joint Division, the panies to collaborate and steadily $151,650. For Bangladesh, which BINA studies have also shown build-up both the farmers' capac- will invest much more in various that application of a biof ertilizer ity to use the biofertilizers (differ- ways, increasing legume pro- of peat and the best strains of lo- ent mixes for different legume duction by about 25% through cal rhizobia for lentils, chickpea crops) as well as the country's ca- the use of biofertilizer could lead and groundnut can add 70-100 pacity to produce them. Both will to savings of about $25 million on kilograms per hectare of atmos- require successive and wide- imported legumes and about $6 pheric nitrogen to the soil spread field trials to evaluate million on chemical fertilizers. through biological fixation. This what is best for where. On the The returns in terms of a new in- is about what 150-200 kg/ha of production side, BINA already dustry, employment opportuni- urea would provide. Urea costs has a pilot-scale factory with ties, and environment friendly US$20-25 per hectare, the biofer- three small (100 litre) fermenters sustainable legume cultivation, tilizer $3-4. And the biofertilizer needed for rhizobia production, are more difficult to quantify. continued from page 1

speech. Providers of develop- ments were there, but no draw- ment assistance, he said, "tend to down. Why? "It's an issue of ca- use expatriate resident technical pacity," Jaycox said. A model assistance to solve all kinds of problems. Not only do these Of the 88 countries which now problems not get solved, but I benefit from IAEA technical as- vehicle would contend that this is a sys- sistance, the most advanced in tematic destructive force which is nuclear science are those, unsur- Having taken the step to enter undermining the development of prisingly, whose governments the wider arena of development, capacity ..." have committed themselves to the utilizing its expertise and the ca- task. Ghana (see Ghana, page 6) is pacities of its counterpart na- Fewer than one quarter of the one of the best examples in Sub- tional nuclear bodies in a new Agency's members have a nu- Saharan Africa, the region least partnership in development, the clear energy programme and advanced in application of nu- Technical Co-operation (TC) most of those are developed clear techniques. Similarly, Bang- Department realized it needed a countries. But among the rest ladesh, a least developed country new vehicle. The road was clear. there is a clear interest to apply (LDC), is much more advanced in While many other development nuclear technologies for eco- the nuclear field th" A some devel- agencies continued to complain nomic development. oping countries ^see Bangladesh, of lack of national capacity, pages 2,3). many of the TC Department's na- tional counterparts already had The applications are now quite the skills and infrastructure to numerous, reaching ordinary IAEA support for nuclear based apply nuclear techniques, espe- people almost everywhere and development activities to these cially in the priority areas of hu- everyday. These technologies two countries has amounted to man health and agriculture. range from treating cancer in hu- some US $18million over the mans to diagnosing diseases in years. These are paltry sums com- The vehicle for applying nuclear animals, from improving crop pared with total development as- technologies in social-economic productivity to producing dis- sistance, but Ghana and development is what the TC De- ease-resistant plants, from con- Bangladesh are now able to apply partment calls its Model Project. trolling pests and eradicating nuclear means to achieve nation- In the past two years 23 Model pathogen carriers to measuring ally important ends, and have al- Projects have been launched. water resources, soil fertility and ready done so, due in part to the The inauguration on 1 June this fertilizer regimes, from industrial Agency's concentration on capac- year of China's first industrial applications such as measuring ity. scale irradiation plant to be used the thickness of paper and the for disinfestation of foodstuffs, integrity of oil or gas pipelines to Now, after three decades of in- mainly rice, reflects the success those that affect us as individuals tensive focus on building infra- of one. Like all Model Projects, it such as the quality of the food on structure—typically through has immediate practical benefit our plates. These and many other felloships abroad, training to the national economy. It is nuclear technology applications within the country, research sustainable with national exper- can produce significant social contracts, expert assistance, and tise and the technology has com- and economic benefit for devel- provision of laboratory equip- parative advantage over con- oping countries. ment and facilities—Agency ventional approaches. technical assistance is ready for a new partnership in technical Under the Agency's traditional The Chinese Government's strat- co-operation. approach, each country, once it egy is to expand food irradiation had developed its capacity, applications once this pioneer would be in a position to identify For the TC Department, the rea- project has demonstrated that the problems that nuclear tech- soning is straightforward: the technology is economical and nology could best resolve; han- effective. Growing demand for dling the research and preparing "Adequate infrastructure including quality foods has led to increas- projects for implementation. A trained people in the field has been ing restrictions on conventional government could ask for inter- successfully established in many methods of disinfestation (insec- national assistance when it had countries. The next step is adequate ticides and chemical fumigation) established what it wanted to ac- national capacity to take nuclear which are harmful to human and complish. techniques into the development environmental health. Irradia- arena. With strong government com- tion offers a safe and effective In contrast, as Mr. Jaycox of the mitment and the support of other means of achieving greater crop World Bank observed, much partners nuclear technology can utility and value. For the IAEA technical assistance "is imposed, reach the end users and effect signifi- the Model Project is the next it is not welcome and there is no cant social and economic impact. We stage in the evolution of its tech- demand for it really." For exam- can no longer just transfer technol- nical co-operation programme, ple, the World Bank Group lends ogy and hope somebody uses it. Its from the transfer of technology US $4 billion a year in sub-Saha- application must be part of a pro- to a partnership in national de- ran Africa. In 1993 it had US $14 gramme to address major problems velopment. The MP concept, still billion outstanding. The commit- and achieve lasting results." being fine tuned, takes the re- suits of nuclear science all the way to end users such as farmers, health services, industries. Home improvement For example, research by Mali scientists has produced muta- As it prepared for the transition Co-ordination between TC and tions of native rice and sorghum from basic technology transfer to other IAEA Departments (such that give higher yields than those developmental partnership, the as Research & Isotopes or Nu- now cultivated and are of a qual- IAEA's Technical Co-operation clear Safety) is also being en- ity that is more attractive to con- Department also looked inward. hanced, especially with those sumers and more valuable to Peer review was an important Divisions and Sections having a farmers. The TC Department com- ponent for improving effi- role in implementing TC projects. provided expertise, equipment ciency and enhancing the rele- Each project has a project officer and training to accomplish this vance of Agency TC activities. from the Technical Co-operation breakthrough. If the new seeds Department and a technical officer prove vigorous and can be The Model Projects initiative has who could be from any one of the widely distributed, farmers established a new standard for technical divisions of another De- would earn more and the coun- the Agency's technical co-opera- partment. Regular meetings be- try's imports would be reduced. tion activities based on national tween technical and programme How to demonstrate the viability priorities and providing end-us- staff have speeded up the project of the mutant seeds for the ers with new and powerful tech- implementation process signifi- farmer? This is the thrust of a nical solutions. They have also cantly as witnessed by the rate of Model Project started this year, in served to orientate Agency staff financial implementation for Tech- which the government, particu- to seeing nuclear technology not nical Co-operation Fund (TCF) re- larly the Agriculture Ministry, is as an end in itself, but as a means sources of almost 72%. the primary motivator. The key to achieve improvements in the prerequisites of all Model Pro- human condition. The Department was concerned jects are that they receive strong about the large number of pro- national commitment, respond to The Department's new strategy jects not implemented on sched- national development plans and to spread the Model Project con- ule and the annual carry-over of be of practical value to specified cept throughout the TC pro- unutilized resources. There was end users. gramme and involve additional an unacceptable gap between Agency technical officers, na- project approval and implemen- tional nuclear counterparts, and tation caused by delays in getting Model projects are based on na- officials of recipient countries in- the prerequisites for the first six tional capacities and designed to cludes two initiatives—country months of projects—expert job address national priority needs. programming and thematic plan- descriptions, specifications for The TC Department proposes ap- ning. These initiatives will iden- equipment procurement, work- plication of nuclear techniques tify where nuclear technologies plans, fellowship applications only where they are clearly ad- can be most effective and concen- and the like. Improved technical vantageous or at least cost-effec- trate assistance on "fewer but liaison has cut those delays. In tive compared to other means to better" projects in order to create 1994, project prerequisites were ends that achieve results. The significant national impacts sought and received for a sub- government must fully commit to through strengthened commit- stantial number of proposed pro- the Model Projects objectives: ment to priority activities, better jects between 3-6 months earlier construct building and facilities, co-ordination with other UN or- than in previous years, yielding provide national project person- ganizations at country level and an important "head start" in pro- nel and even contribute in cash. interacting more effectively with ject implementation of the 1995- China put in a massive donors and funding agencies. 96 Programme. US$1,015,500 of a total cost of $1,331,300 for the irradiation plant. The share in cash may vary, but all governments must pro- tional objectives, its resources are made available but unutilized by vide substantial contributions. not sufficient to reach all end-us- some IAEA Member Countries, Additionally, Model Projects are ers and situations in which the could be redirected into IAEA designed to be completed in a few technologies are demonstrably technical co-operation projects years, therefore governments useful. Many funding agencies that could be absorbed with sig- must be prepared to sustain the have the opposite problem: finding nificant socio-economic impact. activity after support from the good and clearly implementable The IAEA's Technical Co-opera- Agency is discontinued, and also projects which the government has tion Department has developed be able to do so with minimal the capacity to absorb. The Model the tools to bring the benefit of international funds and exper- Project concept provides a frame- nuclear technology to the door- tise. work and opportunity for donors step of developmental objectives and development agencies to be- in food security, environmental come partners in IAEA TC activi- quality, health, industry and pov- While the IAEA can develop ba- ties. Recent experience and erty alleviation. The only thing sic national infrastructure and in- discussions with top funding missing is the opportunity to de- itiate projects that demonstrate agencies have indicated that sig- velop the full potential of this im- the effectiveness of a particular nificant amounts of bilateral and portant contribution to human nuclear technique to achieve na- multilateral assistance, already development. continued from page 1

On board are experts from the Agency and the Intergovernmen- tal Oceanographic Commission (IOC) of UNESCO, and partici- pants from the five countries that surround the sea (Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia and Turkmenistan) who are doing the sample taking and receiving hands-on training to do precise oceanographic measurements and acquire the skills necessary for follow-up activities. Such sampling, especially at great depths, needs special equipment and skills. Training in manage- ment and collaboration among the disciplines involved—chem- istry, oceanography, isotope technology and marine biology— is also included in the on-board course. Loading sterilized flies for aerial release.

The mystery of the Caspian's dra- many other UN agencies which Joining forces with other agencies matic sea level rise since the late have visited the riparian states in is crucial to the effectiveness of 1970s remains to be solved. It has order to establish government technical co-operation in efforts risen an estimated 2.5 metres in commitment and active partici- to apply nuclear science in the the past 15 years and is still rising pation. social and economic growth of at about 15 centimeters per year. Member States of the Agency. The devastating consequences to The World Meteorological Or- Because the technologies are ap- the people of this basin include ganization (WMO) is preparing plicable in so many areas, the flooding of harbours and coastal to re-establish and upgrade the Agency can seldom take the lead. facilities, changing groundwater hydro-meteorolocal monitoring Instead it sees itself as a valuable flow of adjacent aquifers, cholera stations in the region, especially "partner in development" in sup- outbreaks caused by stagnating in the Caspian's catchment area, port of many areas of activity by sewage which cannot flow to- that have fallen into disuse or ne- UN specialised agencies. Col- wards the sea, pollutant build up glect since the break up of the laboration, with governments from refining oil and salt water former USSR. UNESCO (the UN and development agencies, has intrusion into adjacent ground- Educational, Scientific and Cul- become an important component water and agricultural soils. The tural Organization) and the of Agency TC. Its Model Project increase in pollutants is affecting World Health Organization concept provides a mechanism fisheries and caviar production (WHO) are also deeply involved for realizing the socio-economic due to declining sturgeon num- because of the threat to national benefits of nuclear technology. bers. The cruise, which is also heritage and human health. expected to provide valuable The IAEA and FAO (the Rome- new data on the Caspian Sea, is a based Food and Agriculture Or- small but important input in a The IAEA has a key role in estab- ganization of the UN) established massive programme being knit- lishing the cause of the sea level a Joint Division in Vienna more ted together by members of the rise, without which preventive, than 30 years ago. The recent UN family. mitigative or curative actions FAO initiative (with UNDP fi- cannot be planned. The "cruise" nancial support) on global food project, an Agency initiative in security, has led to even greater An international meeting called which the IOC is taking part, co-operation with FAO in Rome. by the UN Environment Pro- will provide initial baseline data The TC Department, however, gramme (UNEP) in Geneva early from isotopic analyses of the wants to go beyond just transfer- this year concluded that a mul- samples it gathers. The Techni- ring nuclear techniques in agri- tidisciplinary, multisectoral and cal Co-operation Department of culture; it seeks to carry their intergovernmental approach is IAEA has a second-phase project application through to end users, needed to cope with a situation designed to produce detailed using FAO connections with na- that is getting worse. The com- data on this phenomenon and tional agriculture extension serv- prehensive programme which is contribute significantly to the re- ices. Collaboration with WHO is being finalized will be coordi- mediation activities planned by expanding as well. One notewor- nated by UNEP and involve UNEP. thy programme is directed against cancer. Cancer is increas- has been left exclusively to the Collaboration with others or- ing worldwide and the greatest IAEA. ganizations of the UN family has increase is in the developing not been easy, but many new world. By 2010 approximately Early diagnosis is vital for suc- projects have been launched re- two-thirds of new cases will be in cessful treatment. For example cently or are being developed. developing countries. cervical cancer is decreasing in One such initiative with the UN the developed world because of Industrial Development Organi- early diagnosis. Many cases that zation (UNIDO) seeks to set up a Given their different mandates, come to cancer treatment centres pilot facility to produce sterile WHO and IAEA have played dif- in developing countries are too male tsetse flies in Africa. Tsetse ferent but significant roles in the far advanced to permit treat- flies infest 36 countries and a total fight against cancer. WHO has ment. A new WHO/IAEA col- area of 10 million square kilome- concentrated on diagnosis and laboration is planned to develop tres in Africa. treatment while transfer of tech- national diagnostics and radio- nology and equipment for radio- therapy systems for health main- logical methods such as tenance programmes in several Throughout this area the disease teletherapy and brachytherapy developing countries. transmitted by the tsetse fly has a devastating effect on huge num- bers of livestock. The sterile in- sect technique (SIT), which involves releasing sterilized males to challenge the fertile wild Ghana sees big benefits ones as mates, has the potential to eradicate the pest in significant portions of Africa where tsetse from "mini" research infestation is seriously affecting human and animal health, and economic productivity. IAEA reactor has the ability to transfer technol- ogy to breed and sterilise the flies In March this year Ghana actor Ghanaian scientists are on a massive scale to combat this started-up its first research reac- now able to perform these analy- devastating pest, while UNIDO tor, 32 years after a grand design ses. The procedure includes is assessing the capacity to indus- to install a much larger one from spectral analysis to find out trialize this process as a national the then Soviet Union was aborted. what elements are present and in activity which is essential for sus- The new Chinese-built reactor is what concentration in the whole tainability. UNDP has the field truly 'mini', with a capacity of only sample. But this requires com- network to organize the activity 30 kilowatts. Commonly research puter software. Shortly after the on a regional and sub-regional reactors have megawatt-plus ca- reactor was started up, Ghanaian level. pacity. But Ghana has made enor- technicians adapted a software mous strides in nuclear science in that the agency had developed recent years and has the capacity for spectral analysis. Since then a to make maximum use of it. An dedicated software package spe- Several projects have sought to important activity for the na- cially designed by the Chinese control tsetse fly populations, but tional economy would be neu- for NAA in this reactor type has not as yet eradicate them over tron activation analysis (NAA) been installed. truly large areas. Eradication will techniques, using neutrons pro- bring highly desirable conse- duced by this research reactor to quences to African social and assay rocks, sands, soils, and The other key activity for the re- economic development and also help identify mineral resources actor is radioisotope production. for the environment which such as bauxite and manganese Many radioactive isotopes are would be spared of chemical con- which are very important to the routinely used in agriculture, trol effects. Much remains to be Ghanaian economy. health care, hydrology and other done in conjunction with plan- fields. They are commonly pro- ning, organization, infrastruc- duced in nuclear research reac- ture development relating to fly NAA techniques will also be ap- tors with a minimum flux rearing, release, monitoring and plied to assess the quality of the density of neutrons. Although it maintenance. However, the suc- environment, water, and food is small the reactor in Ghana has cess of FAO and other interna- supplies, both imported and lo- the flux density to produce cer- tional partners such as the cally produced. NAA can deter- tain specific radioisotopes, European Union in controlling mine minuscule particles of though not on a commercial tsetse fly species creates a favor- elemental and other impurities scale. Most importantly the mini able situation for full eradication, in a sample very rapidly and ac- reactor will be used for research especially with the strong commit- curately, far beyond the capabil- and training, increasing Ghana's ment of governments, national ity of conventional chemical skilled manpower and upgrad- counterparts and extension serv- methods. Using the research re- ing expertise. ices. Search for sleeping genes

The crops that feed us today Bangladesh wants a sugarcane that evolved over millions of years. can grow in water-logged condi- Their early ancestors often had to tions, and one that does not flower contend with extremely hostile because flowering stops growth conditions such as salinity, and sugar recovery suffers. drought, frost, heat, and water- logging. Only those that had the Ilga Winicov has done pioneering right genetic make-up survived. work on alfalfa. By stressing al- Later, as climate conditions be- falfa with high doses of sodium in came more comfortable, there the growing medium she has was less need for those hardy been able to select cell lines and genes. But plant scientists believe regenerate plants (even seeds) that they are not dead, just dormant, are much more tolerant than the and that if crop plants are suit- parental variety; and can with- ably challenged the appropriate stand 1% sodium chloride in the genes would be aroused from water. What's more, they exclude slumber. the salt rather than survive salt up- take. In much earlier experiments The need to awaken these "induc- with sugarcane, in Hawaii and ible" genes is becoming urgent. From lab to land: tissue culture Cuba, scientists found plants that The burgeoning human popula- is a key to improving vegeta- tolerated salt but took it up, so tion has to be fed. Demand for liv- tively propagated plants, when crystallising sugar the salt ing space adds to the need for more (credit: Beant Ahloowalia) was also crystallised. Winicov has crops to be grown on less land, in also used molecular techniques to nutrient-depleted soils, in areas accentuate their effect, so that the identify the messenger RNA in al- prone to increased flooding or crop better meets the challenge. falfa, opening new avenues for that drought, heat and cold. Already Another part of the programme is technique to be used. some 40 per cent of cropland to induce mutations by irradia- worldwide suffers from salinity, tion and thereby produce new The CRP is applying a combina- another 20% from acidity. and possibly more productive va- tion of tissue culture and radia- rieties of crops. tion mutation techniques, to In mid-1994, the Agency induce desired genes or produce launched a coordinated research The CRP on in-vitro techniques new ones. In the first, the planting programme (CRP) to search for for mutation induction and se- medium is manipulated by add- inducible genes in crops that lection of desired genotypes ing salt or chemicals that produce either do not produce viable involves national agricultural the undesired effect in the plant, seeds or are propagated by seed research institutes of nine coun- such as cell dessication which is but the progeny are very different tries—Bangladesh, China, Colom- what happens in drought, to simu- from the parent. The aim is to bia, Egypt, Ghana, India, Pakistan, late the stress conditions in a field. identify the genes that enable Peru and Syria—with Ilga Winicov In the second, mutations can be each crop to tolerate one or other of the University of Nevada, Reno, induced in millions of plant cells or inhibiting condition—drought USA, as agreement holder. entire plants by a single radiation tolerance in potatoes is an exam- dose. Both provide the huge cell ple—isolate these genes, clone or populations needed, to select the transfer them to that variety, or Crops being studied are cassava (Kenya), garlic (China, Syria), desired traits. In some cases, pineapple (Ghana), potato (Co- even selection can be done at the IAEA Coordinated Research lombia, Egypt, India, Pakistan), test tube culture stage. And once Programmes, designed to pro- sugarcane (Bangladesh, Paki- the required genetic changes have mote international research stan) and sweet potato (Peru). been identified the selected plants in a thematic way, network The countries are seeking to find can be multiplied in tissue culture agricultural research insti- out how these plants can withstand very quickly in the lab, for release tutes of a number of coun- specific stress in a particular envi- to farmers—the ultimate target. Some CRP participants already tries with focus on a single ronment. Peru, for instance, wants a sweet potato that can cope with have plants in field trials which subject to be researched in a were produced in the lab. way prescribed in detail. high temperature and drought. Typically they bring to- gether institutes of develop- ing countries and one INSIDE Technical Co-operation is produced for the IAEA by Maximedia. organization that has done ex- Note to editors: Stories in this and future issues may be freely used. For more tensive research on the information contact: TC Programme Co-ordination Section, International theme, normally from a de- Atomic Energy Agency, P.O. Box 100, A-1400 Vienna, Austria veloped country. Tel: + 43 1 2060 26005 Fax: + 43 1 2060 29633 e-mail: [email protected] 8 SPECIAL REPORT

tension. Only Egypt and Syria mentioned the sus- weapon States. The disagreements cut across pension of the Conference if no decision could be North-South lines. Notably, criticism of the nu- taken, with it to reconvene at a later date until clear-weapon States on issues of disarmament which time the Treaty would remain in force. brought together members of the NAM and some Of the five nuclear-weapon States, four — members of the Western European and Other France, Russia, the United States, and the United States Group. Kingdom — advocated indefinite extension Non-proliferation commitments. At issue from the start, strongly supported by Canada, was the responsibility for past acquisitions by Australia, and most European States. China non-nuclear weapon States of sensitive nuclear joined the support later. While some developing technology and the manner in which future trans- countries supported indefinite extension from fers could be prevented. The first disagreement the beginning, most did not. The opposition occurred when Mexico raised two questions: started to fade about midway into the NPT Con- whether Articles I and II were violated by the ference, following the outcome of the Bandung deployment of American and British nuclear meeting of Foreign Ministers of States in the weapons in the territories of other NATO mem- Non-Aligned Movement (NAM). The meeting bers, with control transferable in times of war; did not unite around demands for the option of a and whether nuclear components and technology 25-year rolling extension. received by the UK under the US/UK Mutual By the third week of the Conference, more Defense Agreement constituted nuclear transfer than 100 States had signed up for indefinite ex- in breach of Article 1. tension and the question was no longer whether Many NAM members agreed with Mexico or not the Treaty would be extended indefinitely, that such transfers were not consistent with NPT but by how great a majority and under what obligations, while the argument was vigorously conditions. refuted by the US, the UK, and a number of While it was clear that there would be a NATO members. A second issue concerned a majority for indefinite extension if it came to a point made by Iran and several Arab States that vote, the President of the Conference, Sri Lankan certain nuclear-weapon States should bear re- Ambassador Jayantha Dhanapala, was firm in sponsibility for the acquisition of sensitive nu- seeking to achieve consensus. Using its unique clear technology and materials by non-NPT par- position as an ex-nuclear-weapon State and as a ties, particularly Israel. No responsibility was non-aligned developing country, South Africa acknowledged by any nuclear-weapon State for proposed linking an " enhanced" review process any such transfers. A third issue concerned the and the acceptance of "principles" covering breach by Iraq of its non-proliferation obliga- non-proliferation, universality, safeguards, tions under Article II and the non-compliance by peaceful uses, nuclear disarmament and nuclear- the Democratic People's Republic of Korea weapon-free zones with the decision to extend (DPRK) with its safeguards obligations under the Treaty indefinitely. South Africa stressed that Article III, with possible implications for Article the principles were not "conditions", but a II. There was not much disagreement on these " yardstick". These principles were discussed in issues as such, except by Iraq and the DPRK a small group of Friends of the President parallel themselves who would not join a consensus if to the review of the Treaty which was being their cases were explicitly mentioned. The pre- carried out in three main committees. In the end, vailing view among the NAM members was that it was this package, augmented by a resolution a balanced assessment of non-compliance should on the Middle East, that won the day. cover both Articles I and II. These issues by themselves were not intrac- table but they could not be resolved in the con- Main Committee I: text of the deeper division over Article VI. Disarmament and security issues Disarmament. The main disagreement re- garding Article VI concerned the following is- The aim of the NPT Conference to adopt a sues: whether the arms race has indeed ceased; Final Declaration on the review of the Treaty's how to speed up the process of nuclear disarma- implementation could not be achieved because ment by all nuclear-weapon States and achieve of deep divisions within Main Committee I over total elimination of nuclear weapons; how to the issues of non-proliferation and nuclear disar- strengthen existing security assurances to non- mament. nuclear-weapon States; and whether a plan of Polarized debate. Main Committee I was action with specific time-frames was feasible for unable to resolve the fundamental difference of future nuclear disarmament. There was less perception on issues between the nuclear- problem with the specific issues of negotiations weapon States and the majority of non-nuclear- for a Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT)

IAEA BULLETIN, 3/1995 31 SPECIAL REPORT

The NPT, the 1995 Conference, and the IAEA

The Review and Extension Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation on Nuclear Weapons (NPT) was convened in New York from 17 April to 12 May 1995. Its significance was underscored by the participation of 175 of the Treaty's 178 States Parties and by the decision to extend the Treaty indefinitely. The dual purpose of the Conference was to review the operation of the Treaty and to decide upon its extension. Ambassador Jayantha Dhanapala, of Sri Lanka, was President of the Conference. The Conference preparatory process, which had started in May 1993, was done in four sessions of the Preparatory Committee. Eleven background documents were accepted for transmission to the Conference, including three prepared by the IAEA. However, relatively little time was devoted to substantive discussions and no major issue were resolved before the Conference. The focus had been on preparation of the draft rules of procedure for the Conference, the most controversial rule of which was left for the Conference itself to resolve. This concerned the voting procedure on the extension decision, a question closely associated with the substantive issue of options for extension, both of which were eventually resolved in the last week of the Conference. The review of the Treaty's implementation was undertaken by three Main Committees with the following mandates:

• Main Committee I: Disarmament and Security Issues Review and implementation of Articles I and II (non-proliferation commitments), Article VI (nuclear and general disarmament commitments); and Article VII (nuclear-weapon-free zones as related to disarmament and security issues) and the related preambular paragraphs. • Main Committee II: Non-Proliferation. Safeguards, and Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zones Review of implementation of Article III (verification and IAEA safeguards); Articles I and II (non-proliferation commitments in relation to verification and peaceful uses of nuclear energy); and Article VII (nuclear-weapon-free zones). Role of the Treaty in promoting non-proliferation, nuclear disarmament, and peace and security. Measures to promote the Treaty's wider acceptance. • Main Committee III: Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Energy Review of implementation of Article III (as regards application of safeguards in such a way as to avoid hampering the economic or technological development of Parties); Article IV (on promotion of peaceful uses of nuclear energy); and Article V (on peaceful applications of nuclear explosions) and related preambular paragraphs.

IAEA Roles and Responsibilities. Under the NPT, the IAEA has been entrusted with the specific role as the international safeguards inspectorate and is generally recognized as the multilateral channel for the transfer of technology for peaceful uses of nuclear energy. Responsibilities emanate from Articles III and IV, respectively. In practical terms, the Agency has roles in connection with a number of other Articles. In practice, the IAEA has been entrusted with verification pursuant to Articles VII (in the Treaty-based nuclear weapon free zones already established or in prospect) and to Article VI (in the context of safeguarding nuclear material deemed excess to US defense requirements.) Possible new roles include those emerging from completion of negotiations for a Comprehensive Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT); and the conclusion of an agreement banning the production of fissionable material for nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosives. In his statement to the Conference on 17 April 1995, IAEA Director General Hans Blix described the important role which has been given to the IAEA in the implementation and fulfilment of the NPT, the Agency's potential role in new areas of nuclear arms control, and its extensive technical cooperation and assistance activities. Background Documents prepared by the IAEA provided detailed information to the Conference. IAEA staff further provided assistance to the Committees, in clarifying issues as well as in providing service as part of the Conference Secretariat.

NPT Origins and Objectives. Signed in 1968 and in force since 1970, the NPT has been hailed as one of the great success stories of multilateral arms control. Its main objectives are to halt the further spread of nuclear weapons, to provide security for non-nuclear weapon States which have given up the nuclear option, to create a climate where co-operation in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy can be fostered, and to encourage good faith arms control negotiations leading to the eventual elimination of nuclear weapons. While opinions differ among States as to how successful the NPT has been in achieving these goals, most are of the view that the world is a safer place with the Treaty than it would be without it. Considering what is at stake, the NPT is a rather simple document consisting of only 10 Articles, the longest of which is six paragraphs. The details of the verification of Treaty obligations are left for negotiation in the framework of the IAEA. These safeguards agreements and subsidiary arrangements go into much greater detail and constitute the Treaty's verification system. The Treaty provides for periodic review conferences at 5-year intervals. The first one was thus held in 1975, followed by those convened in 1980, 1985 and 1990 in accordance with NPT provisions and resolutions by the United Nations General Assembly. The 1995 Conference was specifically provided for in Article X of the Treaty: "Twenty-five years after the entry into force of the Treaty, a conference shall be convened to decide whether the Treaty shall continue in force indefinitely, or shall be extended for an additional fixed period or periods. This decision shall be taken by a majority of the Parties to the Treaty.".

32 IAEA BULLETIN, 3/1995 SPECIAL REPORT

The Final Package of Decisions

The positive outcome of the NPT Conference was a package of three decisions:

• Extension of the Treaty. The Conference decided that, as a majority exists among States Party to the Treaty for its indefinite extension, in accordance with its Article X.2, the Treaty shall continue in force indefinitely.

• Principles and Objectives for Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament. In 20 operative paragraphs, the Conference adopted principles and objectives in all relevant areas. Universality: Urgent priority was given to universal adherence to the NPT. Non-Proliferation: The NPT's vital role in preventing nuclear proliferation and reducing the danger of nuclear war was stressed, as well as the need to make every effort to implement the non-proliferation provisions in all their aspects. Nuclear disarmament: The commitments by nuclear-weapon-States to pursue nuclear disarmament negotiations in good faith were reaffirmed and those States were urged to fulfil their undertakings with determination. Specifically, the implementation of the following programme of action was stressed: completion of negotiations on a Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty no later than 1996, with utmost restraint on testing pending its entry into force; immediate commencement and early conclusion of negotiations for a cut-off agreement on the production of fissile material for nuclear weapons; determined, systematic, and progressive efforts by nuclear-weapon States to reduce nuclear weapons globally, with the ultimate goal of their elimination. Nuclear-weapon-free-zones (NWFZs): The development of NWFZs and zones free of all weapons of mass destruction, especially in regions of tension such as the Middle East, was encouraged as a matter of priority. Security assurances: Going beyond Security Council resolution 984 (1995) and the recent declarations by nuclear-weapon States on negative and positive assurances, consideration should be given to further steps that could take the form of" an internationally binding instrument." Safeguards: Recognizing that the IAEA is the competent authority responsible to verify and assure compliance with the safeguards agreements under Article III of the NPT, the Conference stated that nothing should be done to undermine IAEA's authority; States parties that had not yet concluded safeguards agreements should do so without delay; decisions of the IAEA's Board of Governors for further strengthening the effectiveness of IAEA safeguards should be supported; acceptance of safeguards and legally binding non-proliferation commitments should constitute a precondition for new supply arrangements for transferring nuclear material or equipment or items specially designed for the processing, use, or production of special fissionable material; nuclear material transferred by nuclear-weapon States from military to civilian use should, as soon as practicable, be placed under IAEA's voluntary offer safeguards. Peaceful uses of nuclear energy: Stressing the inalienable right of all parties to develop research, production, and use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes without discrimination and in accordance with NPT provisions, the Conference urged full implementation of undertakings to facilitate transfer of peaceful nuclear technology; preferential treatment for non-nuclear-weapon States Parties in all peaceful nuclear activities; transparency and dialogue in nuclear-related export controls; maintenance of highest practical levels of nuclear safety, including in waste management, physical protection and transport of nuclear materials; and strict avoidance of attacks or threats of attack on peaceful nuclear facilities. Resources for IAEA: The Conference urged that every effort should be made to ensure that the IAEA is equipped with adequate financial and human resources to meet effectively its responsibilities and that the Agency should intensify its efforts to find ways and means for funding technical assistance through predictable and assured resources.

• Strengthening the Review Process. In addition to the Review Conferences at 5-year intervals, it was decided that, beginning in 1997, the Preparatory Committee should hold a meeting in each of the three years prior to the Review Conference to consider the Principles and Objectives and ways to promote the full implementation of the Treaty.

• Resolution on the Middle East. The resolution reaffirms the importance of the early realization of universal adherence to the NPT and calls upon all States of the Middle East that have not yet done so to accede to the Treaty as soon as possible and to accept IAEA full-scope safeguards. It also endorses the aim and objectives of the Middle East peace process and calls upon States in the region to take practical steps in appropriate forums towards the establishment of a Middle East Zone free of weapons of mass destruction and their delivery systems. The resolution, which was adopted without a vote, was sponsored by the NPT depositary States: Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. A first version was originally proposed by 14 members of the League of Arab States expressing concern about Israel's unsafeguarded nuclear facilities and calling for a Middle East free of nuclear and all other weapons of mass destruction and their delivery systems. As other States resisted singling out Israel, a compromise was reached whereby the language agreed in the report of Main Committee III was referred to. That language had expressed concern about unsafeguarded sensitive nuclear facilities in India, Israel, and Pakistan.

IAEA BULLETIN, 3/1995 33 SPECIAL REPORT

and a cut-off agreement on fissionable material. ence, even with the active support of the Confer- On those issues, the adopted Principles and Ob- ence President and the backdrop of the adoption jectives reflect the eventual agreements. of the final package of decisions. The Principles and Objectives acknowledge In a broad sense, however, it can be con- that nuclear disarmament is substantially facili- cluded that the absence of agreement was partly tated by the easing of international tension and filled by the relevant elements of the decision on by the strengthening of trust between States. Principles and Objectives. Of particular signifi- They include specific measures that would cer- cance were the paragraphs on CTBT, the cut-off tainly require effective verification. agreement, and security assurances, all of which On disarmament issues, the five nuclear- went beyond the points of the April joint state- weapon States reaffirmed the position that they ment of the four nuclear-weapon States. had taken in recent declarations. In April 1995, France, Russia, the UK, and the US had issued a joint statement which welcomed the fact that the Main Committee II: arms race had ceased, underlined the importance Non-Proliferation, safeguards, and of the security assurances that were approved by nuclear-weapon-free zones the Security Council, and reaffirmed their com- mitment, as stated in Article VI, "to pursue ne- Largely because fundamental differences in gotiations in good faith on effective measures Main Committee I precluded agreement on a relating to nuclear disarmament, which remains Final Declaration, the report of Main Committee [their] ultimate goal." The fifth nuclear-weapon II was issued as a document of the Conference. It State, China, had issued a separate declaration, will, one assumes, be a point of reference for reiterating its position on non-first use of nuclear future work under the enhanced review mecha- weapons and its support for legally binding secu- nism. The main point, however, from the IAEA rity assurances for non-nuclear-weapon States. It perspective is that some of the key elements (and also called for the complete prohibition and total indeed the language) of the Main Committee II destruction of nuclear weapons. But it did not report are incorporated in the adopted Principles address many of the specific issues raised by the and Objectives. (See box, page 33.) non-nuclear-weapon States. To facilitate its work, the Committee had be- Countries of the Non-Aligned Movement fore it 15 Background Documents, including three contended that the arms race could not be as- prepared by the IAEA relevant to Article III, Arti- sumed to have ended, as long as new warheads cle IV, and Article V, and 18 separate working were being made, fissionable material was being papers submitted by individual or groups of dele- produced for weapons, and nuclear tests were gations on topics relevant to the Committee's de- allowed. While the recent nuclear reductions by liberations. Russia and the United States were welcomed, the Safeguards. What, from the IAEA perspec- NAM countries called for further commitments tive, could reasonably have been expected from to deeper cuts by them and by China, France, and the Conference, and what was achieved? the UK at this stage. They further regarded the At previous NPT Review Conferences, Par- reference to nuclear disarmament as an " ultimate ties had expressed or reaffirmed the conviction goal" and its placement in the context of "gen- that Agency safeguards play a key role in pre- eral and complete disarmament" as language venting proliferation. They inter alia had reaf- presenting disarmament as a virtually unreach- firmed their determination to strengthen barriers able goal. They also argued that the Conference against nuclear weapons proliferation and had should agree on a programme of action for con- urged the IAEA to take full advantage of its crete steps towards the total elimination of nu- rights under safeguards agreements. Previous clear weapons in the foreseeable future. Conferences had also welcomed the significant Committee report. The polarized debate led contributions made by NPT Parties in facilitating to deadlock and a massive heavily bracketed safeguards application and had recognized the report reflecting all the differences. The report crucial importance of continuing political, tech- could therefore not provide a basis for the seg- nical, and financial support for IAEA safeguards. ment of the draft Final Declaration addressing The detailed IAEA Background Document non-proliferation and disarmament issues. In the submitted to the Conference on safeguards high- last week of the Conference, parallel with the lighted the measures which had been taken in effort of the Conference President, the Chairman response to such decisions and conclusions. It of the Drafting Committee, Tadeusz Strulak of did so against the background of new and ever- Poland, drafted a new paper reflecting a middle increasing demands upon the Agency's safe- course on the divisive issues. But no consensus guards system; the financial constraints and criti- could be reached on the last day of the Confer- cally important developments relevant to safe-

34 IAEA BULLETIN, 3/1995 SPECIAL REPORT guards since 1990, notably the discovery of ment other measures of practical value for the Iraq's clandestine nuclear programme; the end of efficient discharge of the IAEA's functions. the Cold War and all its implications; and the These include such measures as agreeing to sim- needs emerging as a result of advances in areas plify designation procedures for Agency inspec- of nuclear disarmament. tors and agreeing to waive visa requirements or It was significant that the 1995 Conference to grant multiple-entry visas to Agency inspec- reaffirmed support for IAEA verification and tors. This is particularly important, given that ongoing efforts to strengthen safeguards, which short notice or no notice inspections are among the IAEA applies on behalf of the international key elements of safeguards strengthening pro- community, and that it decided, in the broad posals under "Programme 93+2". Clearly, such interests of the non-proliferation regime, on the inspections cannot be carried out if restrictive long-term future of the Treaty. This is because visa requirements prevail. the duration of safeguards agreements between Nuclear-Weapon-Free-Zones (NWFZs). the IAEA and NPT Parties are linked to the Article VII of the NPT reflects the significance Treaty itself. of regional non-proliferation arrangements as The safeguards-related elements of the valuable complements to global ones. NWFZs adopted Principles and Objectives can be ex- established by virtue of the Tlatelolco and Raro- pected to have significant implications for the tonga Treaties provide for verification arrange- further evolution of the verification system, both ments closely linked with safeguards implementa- in terms of its scope of application and effective- tion pursuant to the NPT. Additionally, a draft ness. Although the safeguards system has proved Treaty on an African NWFZ also assigns to the effective with regard to declared nuclear activi- IAEA the responsibility for verifying compliance. ties, the case of Iraq made clear that the system In the Middle East, although the creation of an was not effectively equipped to detect any unde- NWFZ is likely to come about only in the context clared activities, primarily because of a shortage of an overall peace settlement, there is agreement of information about any such activities. This in principle among Middle East States as to the realization was fundamental to the first and sub- potential value of such a zone in their region. sequent steps that the IAEA Board of Governors The importance attributed to NWFZs by NPT has approved and which are aimed at correcting Parties was reflected in three specific paragraphs such shortcomings. Strengthening measures in of the Principles and Objectives. In discussions place had already proved effective, for example on this issue, there was a broad agreement about in connection with IAEA verification activities the value of and growing interest in NWFZs. related to assessing the completeness and cor- There were differences of view, however, as to rectness of the DPRK's declaration of its nuclear the appropriate language for referring to NWFZs material subject to safeguards. in specific areas. Some differences were accom- In the broad interests of the non-proliferation modated through a spirit of compromise. Thus, regime, it was very important for the Agency that ultimately, bracketed language was retained in the NPT Conference supported and endorsed the relevant paragraphs of the Main Committee what it was seeking to achieve in strengthening II report only with regard to a future NWFZ in safeguards. The IAEA gave a presentation at the the Middle East (because of very predictable Conference on "Programme 93+2", its overall differences of perception centering on Israel's safeguards development programme, that was well accession to the Treaty and the significance of received. During the General Debate and through- the Middle East peace process) and on an NWFZ out the Committee's discussions, many positive in Central Europe (supported by Belarus but con- statements were made about the IAEA's efforts, tested by others, essentially on the grounds of and the continuing need to support them, notwith- what constituted "Central Europe"). standing some divergences of views on some of the That said, it is significant that the Conference programme's specific ideas and proposals. was firm in its conviction, expressed formally In terms of the practical support which might through the Principles and Objectives, that the be expected to assist safeguards implementation, development of NWFZs, especially in regions of the 1995 Conference inter alia acknowledged tension, should be encouraged as a matter of that under comprehensive safeguards agree- priority, taking into account the specific charac- ments, NPT Parties and the IAEA have an obli- teristics of each region. Of relevance as well is gation to co-operate fully to ensure effective the resolution on the Middle East which was safeguards in all circumstances. In this respect it adopted on 11 May 1995. It calls upon all States in is to be hoped that — over and above the charac- the Middle East to take practical steps towards the teristic calls upon Parties at NPT Conferences to establishment of an effectively verifiable Middle ensure adequate technical and financial support East zone free of nuclear and all other weapons of for safeguards — States will also agree to imple- mass destruction and their delivery systems.

IAEA BULLETIN, 3/1995 35 SPECIAL REPORT

Other related issues. Other issues relevant While consensus was reached on all the to safeguards were addressed in Main Commit- above issues, some were more difficult to resolve tee II. Thus, paragraphs in the Committee's re- than others: port address, inter alia, a need for greater trans- Fuel cycle choices. A few States which have parency on the management of plutonium and made policy decisions not to develop nuclear highly enriched uranium for civil purposes; the power for the production of electricity were wary paramount importance of effective physical pro- of strong endorsements of the technology. Some tection of nuclear material, especially such mate- others resented what they considered interfer- rial useable for military purposes; the need for ence with their national decision-making author- strengthened international co-operation and ity in the peaceful nuclear field. Still others physical protection in preventing illicit traffick- pointed out that the NPT does not oblige a State ing in nuclear material, (including in this re- to actively support the fuel cycle choices of an- spect the work already being conducted under other State Party. To cover these concerns, the IAEA auspices); and the non-proliferation Conference confirmed "that each country's benefits of converting civilian research reac- choices and decisions in [this] field .. should be tors from high enriched uranium to low en- respected without jeopardizing its policies or in- riched uranium fuel. ternational cooperation agreements and arrange- ments ... and its fuel-cycle policies" Nuclear safety. The importance of ensuring Main Committee III: a high level of nuclear safety through rigorous Peaceful uses of nuclear energy national measures, international instruments, and international cooperation was recognized by The "peaceful uses" Committee benefitted all. The nuclear safety services provided by from a constructive and non-confrontational at- IAEA were fully endorsed and the 1994 Conven- mosphere from the outset. The only matter which tion on Nuclear Safety was welcomed. States eluded consensus was a text that expressed regret were urged to utilize its principles pending its concerning restrictions on free and unimpeded entry into force. Steps to define the peer review access to peaceful nuclear technology which was process for the Convention were supported. sent to the Drafting Committee. The delegation Some States wished to welcome a voluntary ex- of Iran insisted on the retention of the text within tension of the Convention, or at least its safety brackets, but intimated that it might be with- objectives, to other civil nuclear activities. Con- drawn in the light of final versions of other sensus was reached on a recommendation to con- bracketed text being looked at by the Drafting sider the possibility of further conventions that Committee. Since the Drafting Committee was might strengthen safety in nuclear activities unable to put together a consensus text, this short other than civil nuclear power plants. paragraph remained in brackets. Safety of marine transport of nuclear mate- At the Conference, as it did with respect to its rial. The group of small island developing States, safeguards work, the IAEA gave a presentation supported by Australia, New Zealand, and sev- on its technical cooperation and related activi- eral non-governmental organizations (NGOs), ties. The deliberations of Main Committee III expressed particular concern about the safety of were supportive of IAEA efforts. Technical co- marine transport of nuclear material. A rather operation and nuclear safety activities were spe- lengthy text was eventually worked out recog- cifically mentioned in the adopted Principles and nizing the International Maritime Organization Objectives as areas where efforts should be made (IMO) Code for the Safe Carriage of Irradiated to ensure that the IAEA has the financial and Nuclear Fuel, Plutonium and High-level Nuclear human resources necessary to meet its responsi- Wastes in Flasks on Board Ships, and stressing bilities. The Committee reviewed with approval the importance of ongoing work within IAEA to the new directions of IAEA's technical coopera- complement the Code. The same group also in- tion programme. It also discussed issues that troduced language noting that effective liability have been attracting international attention in the mechanisms are essential to provide compensa- "sustainable development" debate: nuclear tion for nuclear-related damage that may occur safety and in particular the 1994 Nuclear Safety during sea transport. Convention; the transport of nuclear materials by Nuclear waste. The Conference recognized sea; radioactive waste management, in particular the need to prohibit dumping of radioactive endorsing preparatory work towards an interna- waste and noted the 1994 amendment of the tional convention on the safety of radioactive London Convention, 1972, by which sea dump- waste management; liability for nuclear damage; ing of all types of radioactive waste is prohibited. and conversion of nuclear materials to peaceful The Conference noted the particular importance uses. of ensuring that possible effects on human health

36 IAEA BULLETIN, 3/1995 SPECIAL REPORT and the environment beyond national borders are obstacles to transfers related to nuclear power taken into account in the management of all kinds were the lack of interest (because of availability of radioactive waste, civilian as well as military. of other energy sources), infrastructure or financ- Conversion of nuclear materials to peaceful ing, rather than restrictions on technology trans- uses. The Conference recognized the problems fer. There was general agreement that non-prolif- of safety and contamination related to the discon- eration measures should not be a pretext for re- tinuation of nuclear operations formerly associ- stricted access as long as the recipient was Party ated with nuclear-weapon programmes. It called to the NPT and accepted comprehensive IAEA for international assistance for remedial meas- safeguards. A number of countries, led by Iran ures, safe resettlement of displaced populations, and Malaysia, called for transparency and non- and restoration of economic productivity to af- discrimination in export controls and an NPT fected areas, where appropriate. Further, the forum for discussing nuclear technology trans- Conference acknowledged the existence of a fers that was open to recipients as well as suppli- special responsibility towards those people of ers. The text finally agreed in Main Committee former United Nations Trust Territories who III called for all States to observe the legitimate have been adversely affected as a result of nu- rights of all NPT Parties to have full access to clear weapons tests. nuclear technology for peaceful purposes. Trans- Liability. Recognizing the need for completion fers made in conformity with Articles I, II, and of ongoing work in the field of nuclear liability III of the Treaty were to be encouraged and within the IAEA and the Nuclear Energy Agency " undue constraints" eliminated. of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and This issue would have been more divisive Development, the Conference took note of the pro- had it not been for the emerging consensus on an posal to hold a diplomatic conference in the first "enhanced" review process, which provides an quarter of 1996. The conference is to be convened opportunity for assessing progress in implement- to revise the Vienna Convention on Civil Liability ing the adopted Principles and Objectives. for Nuclear Damage and provide an effective sup- The non-issues. Compared to heated debate plementary funding regime. in past Review Conferences, two issues were Technical cooperation. Differences among resolved with fewer words and more solidarity States on technical cooperation were mainly of than might have been expected: prohibition of emphasis rather than of substance. All com- armed attacks against peaceful nuclear facilities, mended the work of IAEA and agreed that the and Article V of the Treaty which deals with IAEA technical cooperation programme, in par- peaceful nuclear explosions. Armed attacks were ticular its new directions, should be fully sup- dealt with succinctly as jeopardizing nuclear ported. There was general concern about declin- safety and raising concerns of international law ing pledges and payments to the Technical Coop- on the use of force. eration Fund. The developing countries Regarding peaceful nuclear explosions, the stressed the need for more adequate and pre- Conference recorded that their potential bene- dictable funds and called for a " new financing fits have neither materialized nor been demon- method" to that end; they also wanted a more strated and on the contrary, serious concerns active role by IAEA in assisting developing have been expressed about their environmental countries in the development of nuclear power. consequences. This was an important message Several supported the creation of the standing which the quasi-totality of NPT Parties wished advisory group on technical assistance and co- to pass on to the Conference on Disarmament operation and this was reflected in the final (CD) in the context of ongoing negotiations on text. In view of the fact that many NPT Parties a Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. China alone are not IAEA Member States, the Agency was resisted the reference to the CD, saying that it encouraged to give special attention to the went beyond the review of the Treaty, but ac- needs of least-developed countries and to look cepted the rest of the text. Eventually the mes- into ways it could extend technical assistance sage passed, albeit somewhat diluted with pos- to non-members. sible " future developments" which should also As regards bilateral cooperation, the Confer- be taken into account. ence regretted that some non-parties had been Universality of NPT membership. In the able to benefit from cooperation with NPT Par- last area of its work, the Review of Article IX on ties that may have contributed to non-peaceful universal membership of the NPT, Main Com- programmes and welcomed subsequent steps to mittee III agreed to a text that eventually was a rectify the situation. As in the past, preferential key to the adoption of the final package, as it treatment to Parties to the Treaty was urged. addressed the issue of non-parties in a way that Access to peaceful nuclear technology. was found acceptable by all. This issue was of Several supplier States pointed out that the main particular concern to Middle East Parties.

IAEA BULLETIN, 3/1995 37 SPECIAL REPORT

The Australian delegation provided the origi- sensus is reflected in the package of decisions nal draft which became the basis tor consensus that was adopted. It significantly incorporates on the following paragraph: "The Conference strong support for IAEA roles, programmes, and particularly urges those non-parties to the Treaty plans. The Conference notably commended which operate unsafeguarded sensitive nuclear Agency efforts in areas of safeguards and the facilities — India. Israel and Pakistan — to take transfer of technology for peaceful applications such action [accede to NPT]. and affirms the of nuclear energy, particularly with respect to important contribution this would make to re- technical cooperation and nuclear safety, and it gional and global security." called for renewed efforts to ensure that the If the measure of a Treaty's success is in its IAEA is equipped with adequate financial and membership, the NPT regime is much stronger human resources to meet effectively its today than at its last Review in 1990. In 1990 responsibilities. there were 139 Parties. 84 of which participated At a time when the international community in the Review Conference. France and China had is facing new demands and challenges in areas of not yet joined. By early 1995 there were 178 nuclear verification and social and economic de- Parties. 175 of which participated in the NPT velopment, there is greater need than ever for Conference. The accession of States such as strengthening the institutions engaged in these South Africa and Argentina, as well as the for- efforts. In many respects, a window of opportu- mer Soviet Republics, and the positive role nity exists for reinforcing the IAEA's roles and played by them in their "first" Review Confer- capabilities within the evolving global frame- ence, created an atmosphere that was quite differ- work, something which was grasped clearly if ent from previous Conferences. The NPT Club had judged from deliberations at the 1995 NPT Con- gone global. Just days after the Conference ended. ference. However, as IAEA Director General Chile announced its accession to the Treaty. Hans Blix has made clear, what will be achieved depends essentially on whether States are now prepared to match words with actions by grant- ing the Agency the necessary political, technical, The road ahead and financial support. Despite lack of agreement at the NPT Con- Which way the international community ference on a Final Declaration, the overall con- moves on the road ahead remains to be seen. O

Peaceful nuclear technologies are being applied worldwide.

38 IAEA BULLETIN, 3/1995 TOPICAL REPORTS

INISat25: Pioneer of the nuclear information highway

Marking its silver anniversary of service, the IAEA's International Nuclear Information System is carving out some new directions

Tram the beginning, the collection and dis- both a database containing records of the world' s by semination of information has been an important nuclear literature and full text of non-conven- Joyce Amenta part of the IAEA's mandate. Indeed, the Agency tional literature on microfiche". IMS operations and Alexander is required by its Statute ".... to encourage the officially began in March 1970. Sorokin exchange among its members of information re- lating to the nature and peaceful uses of atomic energy and... serve as an intermediary among its An information cooperative members for this purpose". The birth of such a globally oriented nuclear IMS is a co-operative system between the information system, however, was some years in Agency and its Member States including some the making. international organizations. A distinguishing The first documented proposal on an interna- feature is the decentralized operational philoso- tional nuclear information system was made in phy. Each Member State participating in IMS 1966 by Dr. L.L. Isaev of the Soviet Union and scans the scientific literature published within its Dr. R.K. Wakerling of the United States. Two national boundaries, identifies items that fall years later, in 1968, a detailed systems study was within the subject scope of the system, prepares carried out by a team consisting of experts from standardized descriptions of these, and sends the these two countries, plus the United Kingdom, descriptions, in many cases together with a copy Federal Republic of Germany, European Atomic of the original piece of literature, to the Agency. Energy Community (Euratom), and the IAEA. At IAEA headquarters, the incoming informa- The team's report, which was the culmination of tion is checked and merged into a single file so an intensive 2-year period of work of many con- as to create a comprehensive bibliographic data- sultants, formed the basis of a proposal submit- base. A copy of the full text of non-conventional ted to the IAEA Board of Governors. At its literature (e.g., research reports and conference meeting on 26 February 1969, the IAEA Board papers) is microfiched and stored in a central decided to ".... approve the setting up of IMS on collection. Copies of the database and microfiche an operational basis as early as possible in 1970, are delivered to the Member States for their use and authorize the Director General to request the in providing information services to end-users. participation of Member States therein ....". Each Member State is represented in IMS by Upon the proposal of the Governor from India, a Liaison Officer officially appointed by the ap- Mr. Trivedi, the Board also decided that "In propriate national authority. Jointly with the developing IMS, the Agency would as far as IAEA Secretariat, the Liaison Officers are re- possible take note of the needs of developing sponsible for the day-to-day management and countries". smooth running of the system. Each year they Within that framework, the world's first truly come together at a three- to four-day consultative international computerized system was born meeting convened by the IAEA to review the with its mission "to produce and disseminate progress achieved by IMS during the previous 12 months and make recommendations for its future development. Mrs. Amenta is Director of the IAEA Division of Scientific Far-reaching benefits. The decentralized and Technical Information, and Mr. Sorokin is Head of the approach to input preparation and output dis- Division's IMS Section. Also contributing were Mr. C. Todeschini, Ms. J. Blanton, and Mr. K. Buerk of the IMS semination yields valuable benefits. It results in Section. comprehensive coverage of nuclear literature, ef-

IAEA BULLETIN, 3/1995 39 TOPICAL REPORTS

INIS Participating Member States

States joining 1969-70 States joining after 1970

fective handling of information in different lan- In April 1970, the initial output product of the guages, and highly satisfactory services for users new International Nuclear Information System was of the information in each participating country. distributed. In the first 2 or 3 years the amount of Spectacular growth has taken place in partici- information collected and redistributed was rela- pation by Agency Member States. In 1970, at the tively small. Gradually, however, the system's or- commencement of the system, 38 countries indi- ganization took shape on an international basis and INIS on line in Germany. by 1973 the number of items processed per year (Credit: cated their willingness to participate. By the be- Fachinformationszentrum ginning of 1995, the number of countries had amounted to 56,700, about twice as many as the Karlsruhe) grown to 90. (See map.) combined total of processed items from the pre- vious 3 years. From 1974 on, INIS had achieved a steady operation, processing annually 60,000 to 70,000 documents. By 1976, INIS was considered the world's comprehensive abstracting and index- ing service in the field of atomic energy. The total amount of information that has been collected in the 25 years that INIS has been operating now consists of over 1.8 million items, with an annual increase of 80-85,000 documents. The usefulness of the system to end users — in particular decision makers, scientists and en- gineers — lies in access to information related to in all the areas of interest and activities of the IAEA covered by the subject scope of the INIS database. The subjects include nuclear power, nuclear safety, radiation protection, safeguards, nuclear applications, and related topics.

40 IAEA BULLETIN, 3/1995 TOPICAL REPORTS

Choice of products of the national information infrastructure as well as promote the transfer of modern information IMS provides useful products to Member technology. States at different stages of development. The In order to assist Member States in building policy of "benefits for all" is met by producing up their information processing capabilities, a carefully balanced range of products and serv- INIS has established a regular training pro- ices. IMS information is available in different gramme of seminars usually held every second forms and the user may select the most appropri- year, a fellowship training scheme, and advisory ate forms for his facilities and users. IMS output services to national centres. products and services currently consist of: Over the years, IMS expertise has provided and facilitated information technology transfer; • INIS Atomindex, a printed journal with full the development of information skills, and the bibliographic references and abstracts for all adoption and use of standards for maximizing literature reported to the system. There are 24 information exchange. Information technology issues per year. transfer is achieved, for example, by both IMS • Magnetic tape, the machine-readable equivalent training and IAEA technical co-operation pro- of Atomindex. It is distributed upon request jects. These activities assure the establishment or either 12 or 24 times a year. upgrading of INIS National Information Centres, • CD-ROM. The set consists of five archival and provide necessary information technologies. disks covering 1976 through 1994 and one cur- They also facilitate formal and on-the-job infor- rent disk which is updated four times per year. mation skills development. To date, IMS has con- • Document delivery services. Full text of non- ducted 48 training events with 1500 trainees. conventional literature reported to the system, Through an early regional technical coopera- distributed on microfiche 24 times a year. tion project, the INIS network was strengthened. • On-line services. The IMS database is avail- The project resulted in information centres being able on-line from the Agency's computer in established or improved in 14 countries in Latin Vienna as well as from hosts in Member America, in the training of more than 50 staff, States to users anywhere who have the appro- and the introduction of new information tech- priate technical capability. nologies. As a result, these countries can now function collectively and the exchange of infor- High levels of demand. The most powerful mation has strengthened ties within the region. criteria that can be used in the assessment of any Currently, there are three active regional techni- information service is customer satisfaction. The cal co-operation projects in Asia and the Pacific, usage of information products and services is one Europe, and West Asia. In addition to regional of these indicators. projects, INIS has been involved with 16 na- Four hundred sets of printed INIS Atomindex tional technical cooperation projects, four of are distributed annually to national libraries, re- which are currently still active (Belarus, Leba- search institutes, and universities in more than non, Mongolia, and Sri Lanka). 100 countries. About 95,000 copies of microfiche The benefits of such projects are the im- containing full text of non-conventional literature proved transfer of scientific and technical nu- are distributed annually to information centres, li- clear information to the recipient countries, braries, and individuals in 54 countries. Twenty- strengthened capabilities of national information one countries receive Atomindex on magnetic tape centres, and expansion of the INIS network as an which is used by information centres to dissemi- "information co-operative". Each participating nate IMS information internally. About 70,000 Member State, in providing information to INIS, searches of the IMS database were performed in gets a "return on its investment" and has access 1994 by those who have a network connection. to a larger nuclear information database to which Additionally, 173 sets of the IMS database on all Members contribute. CD-ROM are currently distributed annually to col- The basic organizational principles of INIS lective and individual users in 85 countries. (A are still valid after 25 years. INIS has been used large number of searches are made on CD-ROM as a model for other United Nations information disks.) These statistics would seem to confirm the systems, notably for agricultural sciences and high usage of IMS output products. technology (AGRIS) established by FAO. From its inception, AGRIS adopted the basic principles, standards, and procedures from IMS, even to the Transferring expertise and systems extent of utilizing the same computer software. INIS technical standards and rules for proc- One major advantage of a decentralized sys- essing literature have also been adopted by two tem is that it tends to stimulate the improvement other international information systems. They

IAEA BULLETIN, 3/1995 41 TOPICAL REPORTS

International Nuclear Information System: New directions and partnerships

INIS set itself the goal 25 years ago to employ the most up-to-date announcement of their publications in the INIS database, the information technologies in providing nuclear information publishers of secondary information would see a quid pro quo in sen ices to Member States. The range of output products enabled being able to draw references from INIS to be included in their members to provide information sen ices to their users according databases. Further action would be the establishment of partner- to their capabilities. ships with database hosts. Three-party agreements between INIS, Over the years. INIS has adapted both its methodologies for individual database producers, and database hosts would enable information processing and the sen-ices that its products can users to gain access to information available in other databases provide. The current "information revolution", however, calls offered by the hosts and to do so through INIS. for a re-evaluation of methodologies for effectively providing The printed version of the INIS database has been available nuclear information to users. This applies both to "what" infor- as an abstracting journal, INIS Atomindex, as a parallel product mation is provided and " how" it is provided. For example, what to the electronic database. It has been enjoying a decreasing is currently referred to as the "information highway" provides popularity. A forthcoming action will be to discontinue the worldwide telecommunication networks linking computers eve- printed product and to make the database more widely available rywhere and enables searches of databases to be made from any on CD-ROM at a substantially reduced price. A system is being location no matter where the databases themselves are stored. developed to enable digitalization and optical storage of full text Once relevant references have been identified, the full text of the documents onto CD-ROM from hard copies sent to Vienna by document can then be transmitted to the user. the INIS centres. The system will also accept digitized documents from remote locations so that Member States having the technical Strategic planning. In the light of these developments, the capability can scan documents at their own sites and transfer these IAEA and its INIS participating States have launched a plan for electronically to Vienna. There will be no need for those centres strategic development of the system to be enacted during the to ship hard copies to Vienna. Actions on implementation of this period 1995-2000 and beyond. Strategic developments that take optical storage system will, however, include the continued avail- advantage of the information revolution may change some of the ability of NCL in microform for a certain period of time for basic tenets upon which the system was based. services to those Member States not yet capable of fully utilizing The exchange of information has in the past been based on documents in electronic form. the development of a large bibliographic database containing Users in the nuclear community also require information of references to the world's literature on the peaceful applications a factual or numerical nature, information that is found in cata- of nuclear science and technology provided by the national INIS logues and directories, press releases, calendars of meetings or centres. In addition, the full text of non-conventional literature information on persons having specific expertise, etc. Such infor- (NCL) has been available on microform from the IAEA in mation exists at the IAEA and in Member States. As part of the Vienna. The new approach would continue the development of a Action Plan, INIS will provide access to this type of non-bibli- bibliographic database of references supplied by the national ographic information available either in Vienna or at locations in INIS centres, but it would include additional bibliographic refer- the Member States. ences through arrangements with other database producers. Fur- ther sources of information would be accessed directly through Impact on INIS centres. Implementation of the Action Plan networks to hosts located anywhere in the world. Developments will affect operations at the national INIS centres. As a result of in optical storage technologies open new possibilities for distri- partnerships established with publishers and database producers bution of NCL. The full text of NCL can be scanned onto optical for the provision of records to INIS, national centres may not need disk and distributed widely at low cost. to process certain portions of their national nuclear literature, thus To proceed with the implementation of strategic develop- reducing their costs for input preparation. To ensure that all the ments as outlined above, the participating INIS Member States relevant literature is covered for the database, further co-ordina- and the IAEA have adopted an Action Plan. It foresees the tion will need to be established. On the other hand, INIS centres establishment of partnerships with publishers of primary and and their users will benefit from access to nuclear-related infor- secondary information. The publishers of primary information mation available from other sources. With regard to document can provide bibliographic records of their publications in elec- delivery, the availability of NCL in electronic form will speed its tronic form for direct incorporation into the INIS database and distribution, utility, and timeliness. possibly provide access to the full text of their publications in The strategic developments for INIS inherent in the Action electronic form. The publishers of secondary information — Plan for the years 1995-2000 and beyond accentuate timely essentially the producers of bibliographic databases — could changes to current operations and will serve the users of nuclear provide bibliographic records from their databases to the INIS information well into the 21st century.— Mr. Claudio database eliminating duplication in the processing of the litera- Todeschini, INIS Section, Division of Scientific and Technical ture by the IAEA or one of its Member States. These partnerships Information. would necessarily need to be "two-way streets". While the publishers of primary information may see their benefit in the

42 IAEA BULLETIN, 3/1995 TOPICAL REPORTS are the Energy Technology Data Exchange sys- mation users is crucial. Information which is tem established in 1987 by countries of the Or- distributed by electronic means is not yet equally ganization for Economic Cooperation and De- accessible to all countries. The outcome of these velopment; and a document delivery system set considerations should make it possible to pro- up 15 years ago by the European Association for vide information which meets the needs of users Grey Literature Exploitation which covers grey more adequately. literature produced in European countries. New missions. Besides the issues related to Indeed, through its adoption and develop- changing user needs and rapidly developing ment of international information processing technology, there are some issues related to inter- standards. INIS has contributed significantly to- national co-operation and economics of informa- wards improved compatibility and interconnec- tion activity. The major one is "database build- tion between information systems. ing versus access to existing sources". For a Systems such as INIS, which capitalize on considerable number of countries, the INIS data- information technology transfer, information base is the single and only source of readily skills development, and the use of standards for accessible electronic information. In others, information management and exchange have lit- mainly the industrialized countries, nuclear and erally " paved the way" for the global informa- nuclear related information can be obtained from tion highway envisioned today. other databases. This issue was addressed by the Advisory Committee for INIS at its meeting in December 1994. The discussion resulted in a Future developments proposed new Mission Statement for INTS and recommendations on the development for the The agenda for the further development of next 5-year period. INIS reflects the changes that have occurred in the The new mission for INIS stresses not only information industry and in the nuclear commu- the continued building of the database, but the nity. The information technology environment has need for INIS to provide access to mission-re- changed, technology for electronic data exchange lated information not encompassed by its own has been developing at a very rapid pace, the eco- database but available elsewhere. The technology nomics of information services at the national cen- to provide such access already exists. The institu- tres have changed, and the needs for nuclear infor- tional arrangements need to be established. mation are also different from those that existed As its founders envisaged a quarter century 25 years ago when INIS was established. ago, the development of the International Nu- The main technological developments lie in clear Information System must go hand-in- The INIS databank hand with evolving technology and the chang- contains about 1.8 telecommunication networks, digitization of in- million Items of formation, and miniaturization of electronic ing information needs of the IAEA's Member information. equipment. States. 3 (Credit: CERN) Networking, epitomized by the emergence of the Internet, has established the information highways along which flow data, information, and computing power so that access to these commodities spans time and space. The digitization of all types of information (text, images, sound and video) provides new opportunities for information delivery. A grow- ing portion of the total information productivity will consist of information in electronic form, especially full-text databases and images. Miniaturization of equipment allows the infor- mation user to be more mobile and places large amounts of information at the user's fingertips. There is considerable confidence in the tech- nological feasibility of new products and serv- ices but whether they are economically feasible should be studied. The production and costs have to be acceptable and should be compared with the costs of existing media and the added value of the new technologies. A careful evaluation of the environment, background needs and training of intended infor-

IAEA BULLETIN, 3/1995 43 TOPICAL REPORTS

The IAEA on line: Closer links for the global nuclear community

[email protected] and http://www.iaea.or.at/worldatom are two signs of the IAEA's expanding electronic information services

by r\ phenomenon without precedent, the world- would aggregate traffic and feed it to the back- Jerry Barton wide computer network called Internet has gone bone networks. Thus the ability to support global and Lothar from a little-known academic and research net- connections through local networks was born. Wedekind work to become the talk of cyberspace. Turn to Over the past 12 years, the number of host any issue of any popular weekly journal. You computers on the Internet has increased from 200 will find an article about international computer to 2.5 million, an annual growth rate of 120%. communications and computers you can reach Nearly 8 million people can use complete In- via the Internet. Vinton G. Cerf, president of the ternet services, and more than 27 million people Internet Society, believes that a fertile mixture of can use it to exchange electronic mail. high-risk ideas, stable research funding, vision- Internet services range from relatively simple ary leadership, extraordinary grass-roots coop- to highly sophisticated. The Agency uses a com- eration, and vigorous entrepreneurship has led to mercial electronic mail package for its in-house an emerging global information infrastructure electronic mail. With the addition of a gateway unlike anything seen before. computer Unking this mail network to the Internet, Expectations run high, and opportunities are IAEA staff can send and receive mail from any exciting. Yet as organizations are learning, read- worldwide location via the Internet. They do not ing about the Internet is easier than using it in a need to learn much more than how to code the concerted, reliable, and professional way. receiver's electronic mail address. The Internet The IAEA started developing its Internet ca- serves as the interchange medium so that messages pabilities in 1993. (IAEA's Internet address: originating in different systems can be understood. [email protected]) Further development is The next stage of Internet services is the direct designed to improve capabilities for meeting in- connection to a remote computer. This connection ternal information needs, and to expand access to can take two forms: either the ability to locate and the Agency's extensive range of databanks and copy files from the remote computer to your com- information systems within its Member States. puter, or the ability to log on to the remote com- Internet's origins. All electronic communi- puter as a local terminal. cations between computers rely on precisely de- The Agency added these services in early 1994. fined structures of signals, called protocols , that Called FTP and TELNET respectively, they re- define the contents of the message, where it came quire special skills and software on each user's from, and where it is going. In the early 1970s, a desktop computer. About 400 people in the Agency protocol was developed at Stanford University in have these services. The IAEA also established an the United States that allows multiple networks FTP computer for public access in early 1994, so to be interconnected in a flexible and dynamic that people worldwide could download publicly way. This protocol, called TCP/IP, together with available Agency files. In some cases, organiza- the USA's research network, was the basis for tions are allowed to deposit data onto the Agency's the Internet. A decision in the early 1980s sup- FTP computer for retrieval by IAEA staff. The ported the creation of regional networks that highest levels of Internet services are the so-called "special servers" , namely Gopher and the World Wide Web, or WWW. These services, developed Mr. Barton is Head of the Computer Users Liaison Section of by the University of Minnesota in the United States the IAEA's Division of Scientific and Technical Information. and the European Centre for Particle Research (E-mail: [email protected]). Mr. Wedekind is Chief (CERN) in Geneva respectively, add descriptive Editor of IAEA Periodicals in the Division of Public Informa- tion. (E-mail: [email protected]) information to the files that are available, making

44 IAEA BULLETIN, 3/1995 TOPICAL REPORTS their access easier for the user. Gopher is a text- links. The WWW requires more communications based interface that does not require sophisticated bandwidth and more powerful desktop computers, computers. The WWW is a full multi-media but it is already the most heavily used Internet graphical interface that includes the ability to service. It is simple to use and the documents you jump between documents automatically by find are displayed immediately on your screen and clicking on highlighted words, i.e. hypertext can be either copied or printed directly.

The IAEA and Information Technology: Tools for Efficiency

Information technology (IT) — the use of activities towards the decentralized goal. An computers and networks to electronically collect, Agency-wide plan for networking was developed manipulate, and disseminate data in organized ways and implemented between 1991 and 1994. The — is a common thread of IAEA programmes. About central computer network today provides a high- 10% of the IAEA's budget is earmarked for IT way along which each department can develop its activities. Some activities deliver databases services tailored to programmatic needs. directly to Member States, while many others are 1990s: Support and Services. Working with directed towards increasing organizational IT Coordinators, the CCS today provides support for efficiency. The Agency's IT capabilities have a broad portfolio of desktop productivity products. progressed significantly over the years. The support includes providing about 1000 hours of 1970s and 1980s: Process Automation. software training monthly to Agency staff; answering Most early uses of IT were to automate manual technical questions through a central help line; and support processes, such as payroll, bookkeeping, evaluating technologies, new applications, and sys- and project tracking. These activities were charac- tems. Electronic mail and Internet services further are terized by well-defined procedures and reporting provided to the entire Agency. More than 250,000 needs. The IAEA's Central Computer Services messages are exchanged monthly via the in-house (CCS) operated two mainframe computers electronic mail service and about 30,000 messages through a central group of computer professionals. are received from outside the IAEA via the Agency's One computer was used exclusively by the Depart- connection to the Internet. ment of Safeguards to ensure the confidentiality of 1995 and Beyond: Information Manage- inspection and verification data. By the mid- ment. As computer systems move to local net- 1980s, there were more than 100 computer systems works, the need for maintaining a coherent on the two mainframe computers. Agency-wide understanding and treatment of the 1980s: Text Processing and Personal Com- data increases. Data must be shared where appro- puters. By the 1980s, Agency staff needed more priate to avoid needless duplication and promote flexibility in the way data, text, and graphics were efficient operations. The Agency consequently is processed and used, and in responding promptly to looking more closely at the need for managing inquiries. The Agency approved the use of per- information through technology, rather than just sonal computers (PCs) in 1984 to provide this managing the technology. flexibility and speed. Today about 2000 PCs are in Greater transfer of information will require an use throughout the Agency. Purchases and appli- improved technical infrastructure. The network cations are governed by standards and procedures and database computers consequently will be up- to ensure cost effectiveness and compatibility with graded in 1996. Applications also must be revised the Agency's computer network. frequently to meet new programmatic require- 1990s: Move to Decentralize. By 1989, it had ments, requiring evaluation and selection of appro- become obvious that mainframe computers, with priate tools and expertise. Moreover, staff must be central development and support, could not provide properly trained to apply new technologies for sufficient flexibility and local decision-making greater productivity at the workplace. power. The needs of programme managers were The IAEA has been recognized as one of the changing too rapidly for traditional computer sys- leading organizations in the UN family in terms tems. The IAEA decided in 1989 to decentralize IT of its use of technology to implement its pro- operations, giving responsibility for computing to grammes. Its strategy for the turn of the century each department, whose divisions now have IT Co- bridges the established in-house IT partnerships ordinators and, frequently, their own programming with the development of well-established policies staff. The CCS was given the responsibility of overall for information management. The efforts are fun- support, providing a technical infrastructure for damental elements for strengthening the IAEA's common networking, training, problem resolu- capabilities to efficiently apply information tech- tion, and guidance for technical development. nologies for programme effectiveness and organ- In 1991, the IAEA Board authorized US $5.5 izational productivity.—Barbara Paul, Division million in a special allocation to help move IT of Scientific and Technical Information.

IAEA BULLETIN, 3/1995 45 TOPICAL REPORTS

The IAEA added WWW services to its spec- The security issue is one of providing access trum of Internet services in early 1995, and most to public information without putting the in- of the users of FTP, TELNET, and Gopher have house network at risk. The solution now being now migrated to WWW. In June 1995, the used is based on establishing a special" firewall" Agency announced the worldwide availability of computer between the publicly accessible com- its WWW computer, and the IAEA's World Atom puter and the protected in-house network. was opened to the public. (See box.) Agency staff can access the remote Internet com- The Web inside the IAEA. Agency staff puters through the firewall, but users of remote need access to a wide range of information to do computers cannot gain access. their jobs effectively. Much of this information Searching for information is still a complex is not available directly in-house, but comes issue. Various commercial and university-cre- from other sources. The Internet provides an ated products exist. The Agency is using one such efficient way of obtaining it. Almost all nuclear system to allow searching of bibliographic data- research institutes worldwide are connected to bases, and is investigating which products can pro- the Internet. Large institutes, such as the Los vide good searching of all WWW information. Alamos Laboratories in the United States, have Document dissemination is a time-consum- significant collections of documents on-line that ing task that needs to be automated as far as are searchable via WWW. The documents can be possible. Most IAEA documents are available in copied to a desktop in Vienna in a short time. word processing form. Putting these documents The Agency also needs a medium for making onto the WWW computer requires translating administrative information more readily avail- these documents into the WWW's text process- able to all staff. The in-house use of the Internet ing language, the Hypertext General Mark-up provides this medium, reaching all parts of the Language, or HTML. Tools for this conversion IAEA despite the use of different network con- are still being developed worldwide. Text that figurations. Material such as the administrative refers to other documents needs to be marked and manual, Secretariat notes, and desk-to-desk cir- the names of the links must be coded. culars can be made available via WWW to the Finally, the issue of capacity means that the desktops. The technology was put into place in IAEA needs to watch the growth of the Internet the second quarter of 1995, and now the proce- worldwide and the demand for networking ca- dures for its use are being established. pacity closely. At usage rates that double annu- The UN and the Internet. Since 1990, United ally, available networking bandwidth can be ex- Nations organizations and specialized agencies hausted quickly, requiring additional investment have been working on ways to allow Member to maintain quality. Today, the IAEA pays a flat States more access to databases and documents annual fee for Internet access to a commercial electronically in a consistent, coordinated manner. company that links it to the Internet. Such fee The Information Systems Coordinating Committee systems may not be sufficient in the future, and many (ISCC), which reports to the Advisory Committee organizations, such as the Internet Society, are al- on Coordination, is responsible for this task. Re- ready discussing different charging modalities. cently its Task Force on Information Access and Expanding on-line services. Over the past Dissemination established a number of principles. four decades, the IAEA has developed a range Among them are the UN's reliance on the Internet of on-line databases for public and technical as the primary (although not sole) means of com- users. They include the Power Reactor Informa- puter communication with Member States; the tion System; the International Nuclear Informa- need for all UN organizations to develop infor- tion System; the International Information Sys- mation access policies and procedures; and the tem for the Agricultural Sciences and Technol- use of the International Computing Centre in ogy, jointly with the Food and Agriculture Or- Geneva to provide a starting point for UN-wide ganization (FAO); the Nuclear Data Information information searches via the WWW. System; and the Atomic and Molecular Data In- The IAEA has started a pilot project to allow formation System. Member State missions in Vienna access to numer- However Internet's future unfolds, the ous Agency databases via connection to its net- IAEA's acquired experience will prove invalu- work. It also is making documents electronically able in keeping up with rapid developments in available to Member States in connection with the the computer and telecommunications fields. As IAEA's General Conference in September 1995. importantly, the work will guide ongoing efforts Internet issues. The IAEA's Central Com- to reinforce the IAEA's capabilities for provid- puter Services are continuing to work on four ing information more productively and effi- issues that affect the public's use of the Internet. ciently. The next stages of development will help These concern questions of security, searching, define the IAEA's role on the emerging global document dissemination, and capacity. nuclear information highway. •

46 IAEA BULLETIN, 3/1995 TOPICAL REPORTS

Home Pages on the Web: A Look at the IAEA's World Atom

World Wide Web sounds like a conspiracy from the pages of designed, and what information they contain are part of the Ian Fleming. That it's a relatively harmless communications tool day-to-day production process. For the most part, links are topi- from the talented minds of the CERN scientific research centre cally oriented, in efforts to integrate World Atom s hundreds of in Geneva should not be too surprising. Born of frustration in underlying pages. electronically accessing and retrieving scientific data, reports, Still in its early stages, the system today is a skeleton of what it graphs, charts, models, and figures, the Web stands as one of will become as the World Atom team prepares empty pages for science's latest successful transfers of technology. The welcome production and brings future links on line. Envisaged is an integrated wizard and its system of "home pages" enable customized family of home pages customized to the particular information multi-media communications over the world's interlinked requirements of the Agency and its scientific, governmental, and computer networks called the Internet. public audiences. The IAEA opened a set of home pages to public access in GC/39 on line. One sign of the times appears in World Atom June 1995. The IAEA's World Atom today delivers information this September, in connection with the 39th Regular Session of about the Agency and global nuclear development drawn from the IAEA General Conference. For the first time, the Agency is more than 1000 underlying, interconnected, and formatted docu- placing key information from and about the Conference on line. ments and files. The system includes background information as Pages will feature the annotated agenda and related public refer- well as more detailed reports about the status of nuclear power, ence documents; full texts of selected addresses, including the nuclear safeguards and verification, global nuclear conventions, statement of the IAEA Director General; summaries of delegate nuclear and radiation safety, and nuclear applications, for exam- statements; and press releases and background notes for the media. ple. World Atom — a joint project of the IAEA's computer and Information will be updated throughout the week-long Confer- public information services — also links users to selected other ence, as part of a wider IAEA computer exhibit to demonstrate its nuclear-related networks on the Web based in the IAEA's Mem- Internet-based services and capabilities. ber States and at organizations within the UN system. Like other information about the Agency, the set of GC/39 Primarily intended for general audiences, World Atom is pages can be found on the IAEA's World Atom at its Web address: being designed for easy use. It is built around the concept of a http://www.iaea.or.at/worldatom. Selected pages, including the magazine bound by seemingly endless numbers of electronic full set of GC resolutions and decisions, will stay on line for easy pages, which readers can flip through with the click of the mouse. reference well after the Conference closes.—Lothar Wedekind, Decisions about where the pages are, how they are linked and Division of Public Information.

Netscape - [The IAEA World Atom] File Edit View Go Bookmarks Sptions filrectory Help m a » Otwi Mm FW Location: http://www.iaea.or.at/worldatom/

Welcome to the IAEA's World Atom @, the electronic news and public information service of the International Atomic Energy Agency, headquartered in Vienna, Austria. World Atom ® includes topical overviews, global status reports, and useful facts about the worldwide development of nuclear energy and the IAEA's extensive activities. Simply click on the underlined text or the appropriate icon below to find the information you need For information about World Atom ®, its development, and how to send us comments, click the icon above

THIS WEEK AT THE IAEA THE IAEA AT A GLANCE

INFORMATION RESOURCES PROGRAMS * ACTIVITIES

RESEARCH LABORATORIES NUCLEAR NETWORKS

Search I World Atom I Itiis Week I Olance I Info I Program I Labs I Network I Help

IAEA BULLETIN, 3/1995 47 .INTERNATIONAL NEWSBRIEFS

IAEA General Opening in Vienna 18 September 1995, the Scientific programme. In conjunction Conference in 39th regular session of the IAEA General Con- with the General Conference, a special scien- Vienna ference was set to address a range of topics on tific programme is scheduled for 19 and 20 the Agency's policies, programmes, and September. Three subjects are being examined: budget. environmental restoration (19 September); ap- The provisional agenda includes items re- plications of accelerators in research, indus- lated to strengthening technical cooperation ac- trial, and other fields (20 September, morning tivities; measures to strengthen international session); new safeguards technologies, specifi- cooperation in nuclear safety, radiological pro- cally with respect to environmental monitoring tection, and radioactive waste management; and equipment that operates in unattended strengthening the effectiveness and improving modes (20 September, afternoon session). the efficiency of the safeguards system; meas- Safety meeting. Also organized, for 20 ures against illicit trafficking in nuclear mate- and 21 September, is the traditional meeting rials and other radioactive sources; implemen- of senior safety officials. Topics address se- tation of the safeguards agreement with the lected nuclear plant safety issues; regulation Democratic People's Republic of Korea; im- of radioactive waste management; and the plementation of United Nations Security Coun- use of quantitative probabilistic criteria in cil resolutions relating to nuclear inspections in safety regulations. Iraq; an African nuclear-weapon-free zone; ap- Technical cooperation. Technical coop- plication of IAEA safeguards in the Middle eration meetings at the Conference are sched- East; and the IAEA's programme and budget uled for 19,20, and 21 September. They include for 1996. group meetings on regional cooperation activi- Board meetings. At its meetings in June ties in Africa, Asia and the Pacific, and Latin 1995, the IAEA Board of Governors took deci- America, as well as consultations with repre- sions on matters related to some of these topics. sentatives of IAEA Member States. They included the Board's approval of the Internet corner. The Conference also fea- IAEA's regular budget for 1996, which calls for tures the "Internet Corner", a demonstration of expenditures of US $219 million, at an ex- selected IAEA on-line information services, change rate of 12.70 Austrian schillings to the notably those available through Internet and dollar. Other matters related to items before the World Wide Web. (See related articles on the General Conference were considered by the Agency's new on-line services in this edition of Board at its pre-Conference meetings begin- the Bulletin.) ning 11 September 1995.

Recent IAEA Recent scientific seminars, conferences, and development was jointly sponsored by the seminars, symposia convened by the IAEA included IAEA, Food and Agriculture Organization conferences, those related to: (FAO) of the United Nations, International La- and symposia Implementation of new Basic Safety bour Office (ILO), Nuclear Energy Agency Standards. From 14-18 August 1995, radia- (NEA) of the Organization for Economic Co- tion protection and safety specialists and regu- operation and Development (OECD), World lators participated in the International Seminar Health Organization (WHO), and the Pan- on Advancement in the Implementation of the American Health Organization (PAHO). New Basic Safety Standards — Experience in Discussions focused on the broad range of Applying the 1990 Recommendations of the practices and sources that give rise to or could International Commission on Radiological give rise to exposure to radiation. The issue- Protection (ICRP). The seminar featured tech- oriented technical sessions addressed protec- nical sessions focusing on the practical applica- tion of workers; protection of patients; pro- tion of the new International Basic Safety tection of the public; potential exposure situ- Standards for Protection Against Ionizing Ra- ations; emergency and chronic exposure situ- diation and for the Safety of Radiation Sources, ations; administrative requirements; exemp- which the IAEA issued in 1994 under its Safety tions; interventions; and national infrastruc- Series as an interim edition. The Standards set tures for implementation. out the basic requirements to be fulfilled in all Operational Safety of Nuclear Power activities involving radiation exposure. Their Plants. The best international practices were

48 IAEA BULLETIN, 3/1995 .INTERNATIONAL NEWSBRIEFS highlighted at the IAEA's International Confer- gramme; the preparation of an international ence on Advances in the Operational Safety of convention covering radioactive waste man- Nuclear Power Plants, convened 4-8 Septem- agement; application of radiation protection re- ber 1995. quirements; national experiences in the field; Presentations from nuclear plant opera- safety of repositories; and regulatory and li- tors and safety officials addressed recent ad- censing requirements. Seminar discussions vances and new methods for enhancing the provided a broad coverage of key issues and safe operation of nuclear plants, which further demonstrated the range of international worldwide supply about 17% of total elec- consensus concerning requirements for safe tricity. In particular, case studies reviewed and effective radioactive waste management recent achievements in national nuclear pro- programmes. grammes, as well as through international The outcome is expected to prove useful in cooperative projects and services, and a panel the ongoing preparations of the international discussion addressed ways to monitor plant convention for radioactive waste management performance and operational safety, and how being developed under IAEA auspices. to communicate the findings to the public. Tomography in nuclear medicine. From Invited papers focused on three major topics: 21-25 August in Vienna, medical imaging spe- the regulatory role in operational safety ad- cialists and health practitioners from more than vances; the utility perspective and experience 60 countries attended an International Sympo- in areas of operational safety; and public un- sium on Tomography in Nuclear Medicine derstanding of nuclear plant operational jointly organized by the IAEA and World safety issues. Health Organization (WHO). The meeting pro- Radioactive waste management. At a vided insights into major strides that have been seminar in Vienna 28-31 August 1995, special- made over the past decade in medical and nu- ists reviewed technical and regulatory require- clear imaging, and examined the prospects for ments for the safe management of radioactive the future in light of recent advances in the waste and major topics influencing global co- field. Applications in medical diagnosis of sin- operation in the field. Sessions included re- gle photon emission tomography (SPECT) and views of the Agency's Radioactive Waste Man- photon emission tomography (PET) were par- agement Safety Standards (RADWASS) pro- ticularly addressed.

The United Nations Security Council in July "The Agency's concern is matched by Security 1995 extended its "full support to the IAEA and many Governments," Mr. Boutros-Ghali Council other international bodies for the work they are wrote, "as was demonstrated when, at its re- statement on undertaking against the problem of illicit traf- cent meeting in Halifax, the Group of Seven illicit ficking in nuclear materials". accepted the offer of President Yeltsin to host trafficking in The statement was made in a letter of 19 a summit in the spring to discuss nuclear nuclear July 1995 from the President of the Security safety, including the issue of illicit traffick- materials Council, Mr. Gerardo Martinez Blanco, to ing. There is also a clear public perception UN Secretary-General Boutros-Ghali. The that this is a serious matter, as evidenced by letter further noted the initiative by Russian the number of references in the media and by President Yeltsin to host a nuclear safety the activity of non-governmental organiza- summit in Moscow early next year and ex- tions." pressed the hope that the trafficking issue As part of its work in this area, the IAEA would be addressed there. has strengthened its assistance to States in areas In a letter to the President of the Security related to the establishment of a reliable data- Council on 11 July 1995, UN Secretary-Gen- base of reported incidents and to the accounting eral Boutros-Ghali focused attention on the and control of nuclear material. The Agency's problem of illicit trafficking and the need for actions are in response to a resolution on illicit concerted action by States and relevant inter- trafficking in nuclear materials adopted by the governmental agencies. The Secretary-General IAEA General Conference in September 1994. stated that he was in contact with IAEA Direc- A report on the subject from IAEA Director tor General Hans Blix on the issue, which he General Blix is being to submitted to the Gen- said was receiving high priority at the Agency. era] Conference this September.

IAEA BULLETIN, 3/1995 49 NATIONAL UPDATES

Argentina: Seminar for journalists dorf Laboratories from September to Novem- ber on improving the productivity of ruminant Journalists from Argentina and other countries livestock through "on-farm" assessment of nu- are participating in a seminar being sponsored trition. More information may be obtained from for the sixth time by the Argentine Atomic the Joint FAO/IAEA Division at the Agency's Energy Commission. Being convened 9-13 Oc- headquarters in Vienna. tober in Buenos Aires, the meeting will focus on the peaceful uses of atomic energy, specifi- Ukraine: Uranium resources cally topics related to health, the environment, nuclear power plant operations, waste manage- The IAEA is exploring possible approaches ment, and other aspects of the nuclear fuel for strengthening global cooperation with cycle. To supplement discussions, Argentine Ukraine in areas related to the development and authorities are including tours to nearby nuclear production of uranium resources. facilities, including a radioactive waste site and Earlier this year, in May 1995, the IAEA the Atucha nuclear plant. More information held a technical committee meeting near Kiev may be obtained from Ms. Elida Bustos, Head on recent changes and events in uranium de- of the Public Opinion Division, CNEA, Av. del posit development, exploration, resources, pro- Libertador 8250 (1429), Buenos Aires, Argen- duction, and the world supply/demand relation- tina. Facsimile: (54-1) 704-1173. ship. The meeting — the first of its kind in the Commonwealth of Independent States — was Austria, Morocco, and Kenya: organized in cooperation with the Nuclear En- FAO/IAEA training activities ergy Agency (NEA) of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development Rabat, Nairobi, and the IAEA's Laboratories (OECD) and held at the Bila Dubrava Facilities at Seibersdorf, Austria, are sites of upcoming of the Ukrainian State Geological Enterprise, training courses in the field of animal health "Kirovgeology". More than 60 specialists from and productivity. Ukraine and 19 other countries participated. From 9 October to 3 November 1995 in Information from technical papers on uranium Rabat, African scientists specifically will geology, resources, production, and related en- learn about the use of immunoassay and mo- vironmental and economic topics will be used lecular methods for the diagnosis and control to update the IAEA and NEA's joint publica- of diseases affecting livestock. Jointly spon- tion, called the Red Book, which covers ura- sored by the Joint Division of the IAEA and nium supply and demand. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), The meeting provided an unparalleled op- the regional training course is designed to portunity for exchanging information between further the transfer of technology in the field, Ukrainian specialists and international experts including the use of enzyme linked imrnu- on uranium-related issues. More than 20 nosorbent assay (ELISA) and new techniques Ukrainian specialists took part in the meeting. such as the polymerase chain reaction and Additionally, Ukrainian authorities arranged DNA probes. The IAEA and FAO have de- field trips following the meeting to facilities veloped internationally accepted, validated, involved in uranium mining and production. and standardized ELISA kits for diagnosing Ukraine's uranium production industry cur- diseases, monitoring disease control pro- rently produces about 40% to 50% of the coun- grammes, and for studying the epidemiology try's uranium requirements. Its estimated 1994 of diseases. Throughout Africa and the devel- uranium production was about 1000 tonnes ura- oping world, animal diseases continue to nium, placing it among the world's 12 largest sharply reduce livestock production, thereby producers. Programmes are being put into place hampering economic development. to develop the industry within the framework The training course in Rabat is among those of a market economy. regularly run by the Joint Division in various areas related to food and agricultural produc- India: Radiation technologies tion. Other activities in 1995 include a work- shop in Nairobi, Kenya, in November and De- A comprehensive technical overview of indus- cember, on the diagnosis of tick-borne diseases trially applied radiation tools has been issued using immunoassay methods, and an interre- by India's National Association for Applica- gional training course at the IAEA's Seibers- tions of Radioisotopes and Radiation in Indus-

50 IAEA BULLETIN, 3/1995 . NATIONAL UPDATES try (NAARRI) in Bombay. Isotopes and Ra- training and qualification; inspection and qual- diation Technology in Industry — the proceed- ity control systems; regulatory and legislative ings of the 1994 International Conference on aspects; optimization of radiation protection Applications of Radioisotopes and Radiation in techniques and applications; uses of ionizing Industrial Development — features detailed re- radiation in industry; and environmental issues ports on radiation processing, tracer technol- related to radiation applications. ogy, nucleonic control systems, non-destruc- More information about the meeting may be tive testing, and nuclear analytical techniques. obtained from ABENDE, Rua Luis Goes 2341, It further presents overviews of global coopera- 04043-400, Sao Paulo, Brazil. Facsimile: tion in the field through national, regional, and (0055-011) 581-1164, or from Mr. J.A. Conte, international projects. The 1994 Conference Av. Vitorio Bortolan, 1450, Pque, N.S. das was held 7-9 February and organized by Dores, IV Etapa, Limeira, Brazil. Facsimile: NAARRI in collaboration with the IAEA, In- (0055 194)41-5837. dia's Department of Atomic Energy, the Indian Nuclear Society, and the Indo-French Techni- Luxembourg: Radiation atlas cal Association. Edited by S.M. Rao and K.M. Kulkarni of The Commission of the European Communi- the Bhaba Atomic Research Centre (BARC) ties (CEC) has issued a Radiation Atlas map- Isotope Division, the proceedings illustrate the ping levels of radiation from natural sources. important role that radiation technologies can The atlas includes maps from 17 countries in play in furthering the industrial development of Europe — the United Kingdom, Ireland, Portu- countries. gal, Spain, France, Luxembourg, Belgium, "With the liberalization of economies in Netherlands, Switzerland, Italy, Germany, countries like India and China, there is a certain Austria, Greece, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, urgency to upgrade the quality of the industrial and Finland. processes and products," writes Mr. D.D. Sood, The maps, which are introduced by over- Director of BARC's Radiochemistry and Iso- views in the language of each country sur- tope Group, in the book's foreword. "Isotopes veyed, present data for cosmic rays, gamma and radiation technology have much to contrib- rays outdoors and indoors, and radon indoors, ute in this direction... Over and above, modern the principal cause of human exposure. The industry is eagerly looking forward to environ- quantities used for cosmic rays and gamma rays ment-friendly and less energy-intensive tech- enable comparisons of the individual compo- nologies. Isotopes and radiation have much to nents of exposure to natural radiation from offer not only in providing eco-benign tech- country to country. Conversion coefficients are nologies...but also in the treatment of domestic provided to facilitate overall comparisons. The and industrial waste." atlas, which was prepared by B.M.R. Green, More information about the book may be J.S. Hughes, and P.R. Lomas of the National obtained from the Secretary, NAARRI, Isotope Radiological Protection Board in the United Division, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Kingdom, also includes useful listings of refer- Bombay 400085, India. Facsimile: (91-22) ences and a glossary of key terms. 556-0750. The CEC's atlas has prompted interest in the preparation of a global atlas, as jointly Brazil: Radiation protection proposed by R.N. Alves of the Instituto Mili- tar de Engenharia in Brazil and M. Oberhofer Brazil will be hosting an international meeting of the CEC's Ispra Joint Research Centre in on radiation protection in industry early next year. Italy. Such an atlas is needed to help people The meeting — scheduled for 17-20 March 1996 place radiation issues in perspective, they — is being organized by Brazil's non-destructive point out, by documenting the levels of natu- testing association, ABENDE, with support from ral background radiation throughout the the Brazilian Committee on Nuclear Energy and world. More information about the CEC atlas the IAEA within the framework of an Agency- may be obtained from the CEC, 2, rue Mer- supported regional technical cooperation project. cier, L-2985 Luxembourg, and about the pro- About 300 experts from Brazil and other coun- posed world atlas from Dr. M. Oberdorfer, tries are expected to participate. Technical Radiation Protection Unit, Ispra Joint Re- presentations will address topics including ra- search Centre, 1-21020 Ispra (Va) Italy. Fac- dioisotope applications in industry; personnel simile: (39) 332-789001.

IAEA BULLETIN, 3/1995 51 BRIEFLY NOTED.

PLUTONIUM ISSUES. A study commissioned by SCIENTIFIC DEVELOPMENT. Issues related to the American Nuclear Society has concluded that scientific development in selected countries are fea- plutonium disposed of as spent fuel in geologic tured in a recent edition of the TWAS Newsletter, repositories cannot be assumed to be irretrievable or from the Third World Academy of Sciences in Tri- protected from being used to build nuclear weapons este, Italy. The newsletter includes reports about in the future. The best solution, the panel said, is to developments in Tanzania, Venezuela, Congo, Co- burn plutonium in power reactors, and continue lombia, Senegal, Peru, and Jamaica. Also featured is research and development of advanced reactors, in- a report on TWAS activities in 1994. TWAS was cluding the fast-breeder reactor. The ANS panel formed to support scientific excellence and research included Dr. Glenn Seaborg, Nobel Laureate and in the developing world. More information may be discoverer of plutonium; Richard Kennedy, former obtained from TWAS, c/o the International Centre US Ambassador-at-Large for Nuclear Proliferation; for Theoretical Physics, P.O. Box 586, 34100 Bertrand Goldschmidt, former Director of Interna- Trieste, Italy. Facsimile: (39-40) 224-559. E- tional Relations for the French Atomic Energy Com- mail: [email protected]. mission; Sir John Hill, former Chairman of the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority; CHEMICAL WEAPONS. Information about the Ryukicki Imai, former Ambassador of Japan to the prohibition of chemical weapons is now being offered United Nations Disarmament Committee; Nikolai over computer lines. Access is through the World Wide Ponomarev-Stepnoi, Vice President, Kurchatov In- Web at the address http://www.opcw.nl, or by using stitute in Russia; Stanley R. Hatcher, former Presi- any Internet search tool. The Chemical Weapons Con- dent and Chief Executive Officer of Atomic Energy vention has been signed by 159 States, of which just of Canada Ltd; and Rudolph Rometsch, former Dep- over 30 have ratified it. More information may be uty Director General for Safeguards at the IAEA. obtained from the Provisional Secretariat, Organization More information may be obtained from the Nuclear for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, Laan van Energy Institute, 1776 Eye Street, Suite 400, Wash- Meerdervoort 51, 2517 AE The Hague, The Nether- ington, DC 20006-3708. lands. Facsimile: (31) 70-360-0944.

The IAEA Yearbook: 1995 Edition

C-omprehensive reports on the global develop- The Yearbook's specialized sections, some ment of nuclear energy and the IAEA's range of which are available separately, provide infor- of activities, programmes, and services are fea- mation and data on the nuclear fuel cycle, from tured in the 1995 edition of the IAEA Yearbook. uranium resources to the management of radio- The latest edition reviews the status and active waste; the safety and operation of nuclear trends of the world's nuclear power pro- power plants and related topical issues; a review grammes, the nuclear fuel cycle, and radioac- of the steps already taken and the measures being tive waste management. Also presented is an implemented to improve the cost effectiveness of international overview of programmes, pro- safeguards and to assure the completeness of in- jects, and services in major areas of nuclear formation on nuclear activities in States which safety and radiological protection; nuclear safe- have undertaken not to acquire nuclear weapons, guards safeguards for 1994; and reports on the as well as new verification roles that the IAEA Agency's activities related to the transfer of may be called upon to play in support of inter- nuclear technologies and related applications. national nuclear arms control agreements; and Among the Yearbook's special reports is one examples of nuclear techniques and research in on the outcome of the Review and Extension fields including food and agriculture, medicine, Conference of the Treaty on the Non-Prolif- industry, earth sciences, and hydrology. eration of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) in the The IAEA Yearbook is available for pur- context of the IAEA's roles under the NPT, chase from the IAEA or its sales outlets in and a summary of the Agency's safeguards Member States. See the Keep Abreast section in implementation in 1994. the IAEA Bulletin for ordering information.

52 IAEA BULLETIN, 3/1995 INTFRfMATIONAL DATAFILE

Nuclear power In operation Under construction status around No. of units Total net MWe No. of units Total net MWe the world Argentina 2 935 1 692 Belgium 7 5 527 Brazil 1 626 1 1245 Bulgaria 6 3 538 Canada 22 15 755 China 3 2 100 Czech Republic 4 1 648 2 1 824 Finland 4 2310 France 56 58 493 4 5810 Germany 21 22 657 Hungary 4 1 729 India 9 1 493 5 1 010 Iran 2 2 392 Japan 49 38 875 5 4 799 Kazakhstan 1 70 Korea, Rep. of 10 8 170 6 4 820 Lithuania 2 2 370 Mexico 2 1 308 Netherlands 2 504 Pakistan 1 125 1 300 Romania 5 3 250 Russian Federation 29 19 843 4 3 375 South Africa 2 1 842 Slovak Republic 4 1 632 4 1 552 Slovenia 1 632 Spain 9 7 105 Sweden 12 10 002 Switzerland 5 2 985 United Kingdom 34 11 720 1 1 188 Ukraine 15 12 679 6 5 700 USA 109 98 784 1 1 165

World total* 432 340 347 48 38 876

• The total includesTaiwan, China where six reactors totalling 4890 MWe are in operation.

Nuclear share of electricity Lithuania 76.37% France 75.29% generation in Belgium 55.77% selected Sweden 51.13% Slovak Republic 49.05% countries Bulgaria •5.63% Hungary 43.73% Slovenia 38.01% Switzerland 36.84% Rep. of Korea 35.48% Spain 34.97% Finland 29.51% Germany 29.33% Ukraine 28.85% Czech Republic 28.22% Japan 27.20% Note: Percentages are as of United Kingdom 25.79% end December 1994. Other United States 21.98% countries generating a share of 1Q 1X70/ Canada Is.yji /o their electricity from nuclear 13.77% Argentina power include Pakistan, Russia 11.C9% South Africa 5.69% Kazakhstan and Brazil. Netherlands 4.86% Additionally, the share of Mexico 3.50% nuclear generation was 33.5% China 1.49% in Taiwan, China. India 1.37%

IAEA BULLETIN, 3/1995 53 _ IAEA BOOKS KEEP ABREAST

Reports and Proceedings HOW TO ORDER IAEA SALES PUBLICATIONS Nuclear and Related Techniques in IAEA books, reports, and other publications may be purchased from sales agents or Soil-plant Studies on Sustainable booksellers listed here or through major local bookstores. Agriculture and Environmental Preservation, Proceedings Series No. 947, 2120 Austrian schillings, ISBN 92-0-100895-3 ARGENTINA NETHERLANDS Comision Nacional de Energia Atomica, Martinus Nijhoff International, Treatment of External Hazards in Avenida del Libertador 8250 P.O. Box 269, NL-2501 AX The Hague Probabilistic Safety Assessment for RA-1429 Buenos Aires Swets and Zeitlinger b.v., Nuclear Power Plants, Safety Series No. AUSTRALIA P.O. Box 830, NL-2610 SZ Lisse 968, 240 Austrian schillings, ISBN Hunter Publications, 58A Gipps Street, 92-0-104794-0 PAKISTAN Collingwood, Victoria 3066 Mirza Book Agency, 65, Shahrah Procedures for Conducting Probabilistic BELGIUM Quaid-e-Azam, P.O. Box 729, Lahore 3 Safety Assessment of Nuclear Power Plants Service Courrier UNESCO POLAND (Level 2), Safety Series No. 969, 440 202, Avenue du Roi, B-1060 Brussels Ars Polona, Foreign Trade Enterprise, Austrian schillings, ISBN 92-0-102195-X Krakowskie Przedmiescie 7, CANADA Procedures for Conducting Probabilistic PL-00-068 Warsaw UNIPUB Safety Assessment of Nuclear Power Plants 4611-F Assembly Drive ROMANIA (Level 2), Safety Series No. 969, 440 Lanham, MD 20706-4391, USA Ilexim, P.O. Box 136-137, Bucharest Austrian schillings, ISBN 92-0-102195-X CHILE RUSSIAN FEDERATION International Basic Safety Standards for Comision Chilena de Energia Nuclear Mezhdunarodnaya Kniga Protection Against Ionizating Radiation Venta de Publicaciones, Sovinkniga-EA, Dimitrova 39 and for the Safety of Radiation Sources, Amunategui 95, Casilla 188-D, Santiago SU-113 095 Moscow Safety Series No.979,1160 Austrian schillings, ISBN 92-0-100195-9 CHINA SLOVAK REPUBLIC IAEA Publications in Chinese: Alfa Publishers, Hurbanovo namestie 3, Design of Spent Fuel Interim Storage China Nuclear Energy Industry Corp. SQ-815 89 Bratislava Facilities, Safety Series No. 976,240 Austrian Translation Section, SOUTH AFRICA schillings, ISBN 92-0-104994-3 P.O. Box 2103, Beijing Van Schaik Bookstore (Pty) Ltd, IAEA Publications other than in Chinese: Operation of Spent Fuel Interim Storage P.O. Box 724, Pretoria 0001 Facilities, Safety Series No. 977,240 Austrian China National Publications Import & schillings, ISBN 92-0-105094-1 Export Corp., Deutsche Abteilung SPAIN P.O. Box 88, Beijing Diaz de Santos, Lagasca 95, Calibration of Dosimeters Used in E-28006 Madrid Radiotherapy, Technical Reports Series No. FRANCE Diaz de Santos, Balmes 417, Office International de Documentation et 374, 360 Austrian schillings, ISBN E-08022 Barcelona 92-0-104894-7 Librairie, 48, rue Gay-Lussac F-75240 Paris Cedex 05 SWEDEN Safe Enclosure of Shutdown Nuclear AB Fritzes Kungl. Hovbokhandel, GERMANY Installations, Technical Reports Series No. Fredsgatan 2, P.O. Box 16356, UNO-Verlag, Vertriebs-und Verlags 375, 360 Austrian schillings, ISBN S-103 Stockholm 92-0-100495-8 GmbH, Dag Hammarskjold-Haus, Poppelsdorfer Allee 55, D-53115 Bonn UNITED KINGDOM Quality Assurance for Radioactive Waste HMSO Publications Centre, HUNGARY Packages, Technical Reports Series No. 376, Agency Section, 51 Nine Elms Lane, Librotrade Ltd., Book Import, 280 Austrian schillings, ISBN 92-0-100695-0 London SW8 5DR P.O. Box 126, H-1656 Budapest Reference Books/Statistics UNITED STATES OF AMERICA INDIA IAEA Yearbook 1994,500 Austrian UNIPUB Oxford Book and Stationary Co., 4611-F Assembly Drive schillings, ISBN 92-0-102394-4 17, Park Street, Calcutta-700 016 Lanham, MD 20706-4391, USA Energy, Electricity and Nuclear Power Oxford Book and Stationary Co., Estimates up to 2015, Reference Data Series Scindia House, New Delhi-110 001 YUGOSLAVIA No. 1,100 Austrian schillings, ISBN Jugoslovenska Knjiga, Terazije 27, ISRAEL P.O. Box 36, YU-11001 Belgrade 92-0-102694-3 (IAEA-RDS-1114) YOZMOT Literature Ltd., Nuclear Power Reactors in the World, P.O. Box 56055, IL-61560 Tel Aviv Orders and requests for information Reference Data Series No. 2,140 Austrian ITALY also can be addressed directly to: schillings, ISBN 92-0-101795-2 Libreria Scientifica Dott. Lucio di Biasio Division of Publications (IAEA-RDS-2115) "AEIOU", Via Coronelli 6,1-20146 Milan International Atomic Energy Agency Nuclear Research Reactors in the World, JAPAN Wagramerstrasse 5, P.O. Box 100, Reference Data Series No. 3, 200 Austrian Maruzen Company, Ltd, P.O. Box 5050, A-1400 Vienna, Austria schillings, ISBN 92-0-105394-0 100-31 Tokyo International (1AEA-RDS-3I08)

54 IAEA BULLETIN, 3/1995 Canberra...Covering the Spectrum in Safeguards

We have the Experience, You Get the Benefit... Canberra has been the number 1 commercial supplier of neutron and gamma-based quantitative assay systems for safeguards applications for 20 years. This means that you get: • Proven technology for more reliable systems • Our knowledge and understanding of measurement technologies • The correct solution for your application • Professional training for easy start-up and operation • Worldwide sales, service and support And WE offer Solutions... Our systems have provided solutions to a wide range of applications, including: • ACCOUNTABILITY - Canberra's passive, active, and combined passive/active neutron coincidence counters, multiplicity module and Segmented Gamma Scanners use the latest algorithms to provide the most accurate results for your inventory measure- ments.

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Canberra Industries Inc., Nuclear Products Group, 800 Research Parkway, Meriden, CT 06450 U.S.A. A CANBERRA Tel: (203) 238-2351 Toll Free 1-800-243-4422 FAX: (203) 235-1347 With Offices In: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Russia, United Kingdom. POSTS ANNOUNCED BY THEIAEA

CHEMIST (95-053), Department of Research requires an advanced university degree in sci- 10 years of experience in the development and & Isotopes. This P-4 post requires a Ph.D. or ences or engineering with experience in the use of immunoassays for the diagnosis of ani- equivalent in applied chemistry or radiochem- application of isotope and radiation, admini- mal diseases, measurement of reproductive and istry and at least 10 years of proven R&D stration and management. Also required are at metabolic hormones and veterinary drug resi- experience in radiochemistry related to produc- least 15 years of managerial and administrative dues. Closing date: 27 October 1995. tion of radioisotopes and preparation and qual- experience at a national and/or international ity control of radiopharmaceuticals and other level in programming, formulation and imple- SECTION HEAD (95-041), Department of labelled compounds which are used in in vivo mentation of scientific/technical projects, and Safeguards. This P-5 post requires an advanced nuclear medicine and in vitro assays. experience in project management. university degree or equivalent in nuclear tech- Closing date: 15 December 1995. Closing date: 27 November 1995. nology or related field, and at least 15 years of relevant experience in nuclear industry, nuclear NUCLEAR ANALYST SPECIALIST (95- RADIATION PROTECTION LABORA- related research or international/government 052), Department of Research & Isotopes. This TORY SPECIALIST (95-047), Department service. Also required is sound knowledge of P-3 post requires an advanced university degree of Nuclear Energy & Safety. This P-4 post the use of computers in large information sys- or equivalent in a scientific discipline relevant requires an advanced university degree, or tems with experience in program management to the duties of the post and a comprehensive equivalent in physics, with specialization in and operation of complex automated informa- knowledge of nuclear analytical techniques and radiation protection and dosimetry and at least tion systems. Closing date: 27 October 1995. their applications in health-related environ- 10 years of experience in operational radiation mental research and monitoring. protection, oriented to university scale labora- Closing date: 15 December 1995. tory activities. Also required is practical labo- ratory experience in internal contamination STATISTICIAN (95-051), Department of monitoring, good knowledge of radiation pro- READER'S NOTE: Safeguards. This P-4 post requires a post- tection instrumentation, and practical experi- graduate degree in statistics or operations re- ence in quality assurance programmes. search, and at least 10 years of experience in Closing date: 27November 1995. The IAEA Bulletin publishes short summaries error propagation, sequential testing and rea- of vacancy notices as a service to readers inter- soning with uncertainty. Also required is sub- PERSONNEL POLICY ANALYST (95- ested in the types of professional positions re- stantial training or experience in physical or 046), Department of Administration. This P-2 quired by the IAEA. They are not the official chemical sciences. post requires a university degree in personnel notices and remain subject to change. On a Closing date: 15 December 1995. administration, business management, public frequent basis, the IAEA sends vacancy notices administration, law or other fields of equal rele- to governmental bodies and organizations in the ANALYST PROGRAMMER (95-050), De- vance, with significant course work in statistics Agency's Member States (typically the foreign partment of Nuclear Energy & Safety. This P-2 or quantitative analysis plus a minimum of 2 ministry and atomic energy authority), as well post requires a university degree in computer years of experience in a national or interna- as to United Nations offices and information science or related field and at least 2 years of tional institution. Also required is the ability to centres. Prospective applicants are advised to practical experience with computerized bibli- utilize computer based tools in researching and maintain contact with them. Applications are ographic information systems. Also required is evaluating data. invited from suitable qualified women as well good knowledge of modern programming tools Closing date: 6 November 1995. as men. More specific information about em- ("C/C++", SQL, Visual Basic) and environ- ployment opportunities at the IAEA may be ment (UNIX, Sybase, Windows). RADIATION SAFETY SPECIALIST (95- obtained by writing the Division of Personnel, Closing date: 15 December 1995. 045), Department of Nuclear Energy & Safety. Box 100, A-1400 Vienna, Austria. This P-5 post requires a Ph.D. or equivalent in the field of radiation protection and 15 years of ON-LINE COMPUTER SERVICES. IAEA SENIOR NUCLEAR POWER PLAN- experience in radiation protection, mainly ap- vacancy notices for professional positions, as well NER/ENERGY ECONOMIST (95-049), De- plied to industrial radiation sources. as application forms, now are available through a partment of Nuclear Energy & Safety. This P-5 Closing date: 27 October 1995. global computerized network that can be accessed post requires an advanced university degree in directly. Access is through the Internet The va- energy economics, energy and environment cancy notices are located in a public directory analysis or closely-relevant applied science SECTION HEAD (95-044), Department of accessible via the normal Internet file transfer serv- field, or equivalent level of knowledge and skill Research and Isotopes. This P-5 post requires a ices. To use the service, connect to the IAEA's acquired through experience and at least 15 Ph.D. or equivalent in veterinary medicine or Internet address NESIRS01.IAEA.OR.AT years of experience in national, regional or in- animal science and 15 years of research and (161.5.64.10), and then log on using the identifica- ternational organizations, in the fields of elec- project management experience, including tion anonymous and your user identification. The tric power planning studies and energy and studies using isotope, radiation and biotech- vacancy notices are in the directory called publva- electricity supply/demand analysis. Also re- nological techniques in either animal health, cancy _posts. A README file contains general quired is extensive experience in evaluating, reproduction or nutrition. information, and an INDEX file contains a short assessing and preparing reports on the compara- Closing date: 27 October 1995. description of each vacancy notice. Other informa- tive technical, economic, health and environ- tion, in the form of files that may be copied, includes mental data for different energy sources. HEAD, ANIMAL PRODUCTION UNIT an application form and conditions of employment. Closing date: 27 November 1995. (95-043), Department of Research and Iso- Please note that applications for posts cannot be topes. This P-4 post requires a Ph.D. or equiva- forwarded through the computerized network, RCA CO-ORDINATOR (95-048), Depart- lent degree in veterinary medicine, animal sci- since they must be received in writing by the IAEA ment of Technical Co-operation. This P-5 post ence or a biological science and a minimum of Division of Personnel.

56 IAEA BULLETIN, 3/1995 NUCTEC '95 2nd International Trade Fair. Nuclear Technology and Reactor Safety. NOWEA International GmbH November 27 - December 1,1995 P.O.Box 101006 D-40001 Diisseldorf Moscow/Russia Telephone + 49 (211) 4560-02 Telefax+ 49 (211) 4560-740 Krasnaya Presnya Fairgrounds. Telex 8 588 351 now d For further information please contact: Germany ON LINE DATABASES OF THE INTERNATIONAL ATOMIC ENERGY AGENCY

PRIS AGRIS NDIS AMDIS

Database name Database name Database name Database name Power Reactor Information System International Information System for Nuclear Data Information System Atomic and Molecular Data (PRIS) the Agricultural Sciences and (NDIS) Information System (AMDIS) Technology (AGRIS) Type of database Type of database Type of database Factual Type of database Numerical and bibliographic Numerical and bibliographic Bibliographic Producer Producer Producer International Atomic Energy Agency Producer International Atomic Energy Agency International Atomic Energy Agency in co-operation with Food and Agriculture Organization of in co-operation with the United in co-operation with the International 29 IAEA Member States the United Nations (FAO) in States National Nuclear Data Centre Atomic and Molecular Data Centre co-operation with 172 national, at the Brookhaven National network, a group of 16 national data IAEA contact regional, and international AGRIS Laboratory, the Nuclear Data Bank centres from several countries. IAEA, Nuclear Power Engineering centres of the Nuclear Energy Agency, Section, P.O. Box 100 Organisation for Economic IAEA contact A-1400 Vienna, Austria IAEA contact Co-operation and Development in IAEA Atomic and Molecular Data Telephone (43) (1)2060 AGRIS Processing Unit Paris, France, and a network of 22 Unit, Nuclear Data Section Telex (1)-12645 c/o IAEA, P.O. Box 100 other nuclear data centres worldwide Electronic mail via Facsimile +43 1 20607 A-1400 Vienna, Austria BITNET to: RNDS@IAEA1; Electronic mail via Telephone (43) (1)2060 IAEA contact via INTERNET to ID: BITNET/INTERNET to ID: Telex (1)-12645 IAEA Nuclear Data Section, PSM@ RIPCRS01 .IAEA.OR. AT [email protected] Facsimile +43 1 20607 P.O. Box 100 Electronic mail via A-1400 Vienna, Austria Scope Scope BITNET/INTERNET to ID: Telephone (43) (1)2060 Data on atomic, molecular, Worldwide information on power re- [email protected] Telex (1)-12645 plasma-surface interaction, and actors in operation, under construc- Facsimile +43 1 20607 material properties of interest to tion, planned or shutdown, and data Number of records on line from Electronic mail via fusion research and technology on operating experience with nu- January 1993 to date BITNET/INTERNET to ID: clear power plants in IAEA more than 130 000 [email protected] Coverage Member States. Includes ALADDIN formatted data Scope Scope on atomic structure and spectra Coverage Worldwide information on agricul- Numerical nuclear physics data files (energy levels, wave lengths, and Reactor status, name, location, type, tural sciences and technology, includ- describing the interaction of radiation transition probabilities): electron and supplier, turbine generator supplier, ing forestry, fisheries, and nutrition. with matter, and related heavy particle collisions with atoms. plant owner and operator, thermal bibliographic data. ions, and molecules (cross sections power, gross and net electrical Coverage and/or rate coefficients, including, in power, date of construction start, Agriculture in general; geography Data types most cases, analytic fit to the data); date of first criticality, date of first and history; education, extension, Evaluated neutron reaction data in sputtering of surfaces by impact of synchronization to grid, date of com- and information; administration and ENDF format; experimental nuclear main plasma constituents and self mercial operation, date of shutdown. legislation; agricultural economics; reaction data in EXFOR format, for sputtering: particle reflection from and data on reactor core charac- development and rural sociology; reactions induced by neutrons, surfaces; thermophysical and teristics and plant systems; energy pro- plant and animal science and produc- charged particles, or photons; nuclear thermomechanica] properties of duced; planned and unplanned energy tion; plant protection; post-harvest half-lives and radioactive decay data beryllium and pyrolytic graphites. losses; energy availability and unavail- technology; fisheries and aquacul- in the systems NUDAT and ENSDF; ability factors; operating ture; agricultural machinery and en- related bibliographic information Note: Off-line data and bibliographic factor, and load factor. gineering; natural resources; process- from the IAEA databases CINDA retrievals, as well as ALADDIN ing of agricultural products; human and NSR; various other types of data. software and manual, also may be nutrition; pollution; methodology. ob-tainedfrom the producer on Note: Off-line data retrievals from diskettes, magnetic tape, or hind NDIS also may be obtained from the copy. producer on magnetic tape

For access to these databases, please contact the producers. Information from these databases also may be purchased from the producer in printed form. INIS and AGRIS additionally are available on CD-ROM. The IAEA's nuclear science Database name International Nuclear Information and System (INIS) technology Type of database database on Bibliographic ON CD-ROM CD-ROM Producer International Atomic Energy Agency in co-operation with 91 IAEA Member States and 17 other 5000 JOURNALS international member organizations CD-ROM

IAEA contact MORE THAN 1.6 MILLION RECORDS means IAEA, INIS Section, P.O. Box 100, A-1400 Vienna, Austria Telephone (43) (1) 2060 22842 • unlimited easy Facsimile +43 1 20607 22842 6 COMPACT DISCS access Electronic mail via • fast, dynamic BITNET/1NTERNET to ID: ATIEH@IAEA 1 .IAEA.OR.AT searching • fixed annual Number of records on line from INIS (the International Nuclear Information System) cost January 1976 to date more than 1.6 million is a multi-disciplinary, bibliographic database • flexible down- covering all aspects of the peaceful uses of nuclear loading and Scope science and technology. INIS on CD-ROM combines printing Worldwide information on the peaceful uses of nuclear science and the worldwide coverage of the nuclear literature • desktop technology; economic and with all the advantages of compact disc technology. access environmental aspects of other energy • easy storage • saving time, Coverage space and The central areas of coverage are Call +44 (0)81 995 8242 TODAY! money nuclear reactors, reactor safety, nuclear fusion, applications of radiation or isotopes in medicine, agriculture, industry, and pest for further information control, as well as related fields such as nuclear chemistry, nuclear and details of your local distributor physics, and materials science. Special emphasis is placed on the environmental, economic, and or write to health effects of nuclear energy, as well as, from 1992, the economic SilverPlatter Information Ltd. and environmental aspects of 10 Barley Mow Passage, Chiswick, London non-nuclear energy sources. Legal and social aspects associated with W4 4PH, U.K. nuclear energy also are covered. Tel: 0800 262 096 +44 (0)81 995 8242 Fax: +44 (0)81 995 5159

IAEA BULLETIN. 3/1995 59 IAEA IAEA UPCOMING CO-ORDINATED RESEARCH PROGRAMMES^ SYMPOSIA & SEMINARS.

Quality assurance in radiotherapy in Latin America NOVEMBER 1995 To formulate a practical quality assurance programme for clinical radiotherapy depart- Regional (Asia & the Pacific) Seminar ments in Latin America which may also be adapted by similar institutions in the developing on Education and Training in Radiation countries. Protection and Nuclear Safety Use of radiotherapy in advanced cancer Melbourne, Australia To encourage development and introduction of appropriate radiotherapy techniques (27 November -1 December) and other modalities in the management of advanced cancers which account for over Regional Seminar for Asia and the 75% of the work load in radiotherapy departments in the developing countries. Pacific on Radiotherapy Dosimetry: Potential of thorium-based fuel cycles to constrain plutonium and to reduce Radiation Dose in Radiotherapy from long-term waste toxicities Prescription to Delivery To investigate the potential of thorium-based fuel cycles to constrain plutonium and to Bangkok, Thailand reduce long-term waste toxicities for current, advanced and innovative nuclear power (28 November -1 December) reactors including hybrid systems. Second FAO/IAEA Seminar for Africa Applied research on air pollution using nuclear-related analytical techniques in on Animal Trypanosomiasis: Vector Asia and the Pacific Region (RCA) and Disease Control Using Nuclear To use nuclear-related analytical techniques for air pollution studies in the Asia and Techniques Pacific region through the assessment of toxic heavy metal pollution and other trace Zanzibar, Tanzania elements in air paniculate matter. (27 November -1 December) Regional personal dosimetry intercomparison (ARCAL) FEBRUARY 1996 To provide participating personal dosimetry service organizations an assessment of their ability to measure relevant external dosimetry quantities with sufficient accuracy for FAO/IAEA/IIR/ITC/WHO Interregional radiation protection purposes. Seminar on Food Irradiation to Control Food Losses and Food-Borne Dis- Site characterization techniques used in environmental restoration activities eases in Africa and Near East Regions To encourage the development and improvement of site characterization technology, Rabat, Morocco reduce the duplication of efforts by various parties, and provide useful results and tools (26 February -1 March) for Member States planning activities in areas of environmental restoration. MARCH 1996 Application of heavy charged particles in cancer radiotherapy To promote the application of heavy charged particles in radiotherapy (protons and heavy International Seminar on Enhanced ions) by evaluating their potential benefit as well as by identifying the mechanisms Utilization of Research and through which this benefit can be achieved. Test Reactors Bombay, India Irradiation treatment of water, waste-water and sludges (11 -15 March) To develop technology for decontamination of water, waste-water and sewage sludge based on the utilization of ionizing radiation as such, or in combination with other APRIL 1996 agents. International Conference Isotope-aided studies of atmospheric carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases One Decade after Chernobyl: — Phase 2 Summing Up the Consequences To improve the present understanding of the behaviour and the role of major greenhouse Vienna, Austria (8-12 April) gases in the global ecosystem through observations of temporal and spatial variability of their isotopic composition in selected locations, combined with relevant modelling JUNE 1996 work. Seminar on Nuclear Techniques Related to the Diagnosis and Management of Cancer Vienna, Austria (3 - 7 June) Symposium on Experience in the Planning and Operation of Low Level These are selected listings, subject to change. More Waste Disposal Facilities complete information about IAEA meetings can be obtained from the IAEA Conference Service Section at Vienna, Austria the Agency's headquarters in Vienna, or by referring to (17-21 June) the IAEA quarterly publication Meetings on Atomic Energy (See the Keep Abreast section for ordering JULY 1996 information.) More detailed information about the IAEA's FAO/IAEA Symposium on the Use of co-ordinated research programmes may be obtained from the Research Contracts Administration Section at Nuclear and Related Techniques for IAEA headquarters. The programmes are designed to Studying Environmental Behavior of facilitate global co-operation on scientific and technical Crop Protection Chemicals subjects in various fields, ranging from radiation Vienna, Austria applications in medicine, agriculture, and industry to (1 - 5 July) nuclear power technology and safety.

60 IAEA BULLETIN, 3/1995 95-02859 IAEA IAEA BULLETIN MEMBER STATES

Published quarterly by the Division of 1957 Viet Nam 1968 Public Information of the International Yugoslavia Liechtenstein Afghanistan Atomic Energy Agency, P.O. Box 100, Albania 1958 1969 A-1400 Vienna, Austria. Argentina Belgium Malaysia Tel: (43-1) 2060-21270 Australia Cambodia Niger Austria Ecuador Facsimile: (43-1) 20607 Zambia Belarus Finland E-mail: iaeo@iaea 1.iaea. or.at Brazil Iran, Islamic Republic of 1970 Bulgaria Luxembourg Ireland Canada Mexico Cuba Philippines 1972 DIRECTOR GENERAL: Dr Hans Blix Denmark Sudan Bangladesh Dominican Republic DEPUTY DIRECTORS GENERAL: 1959 Egypt Mr David Waller, Mr Bruno Pellaud, 1973 El Salvador Iraq Mongolia Mr Boris Semenov, Mr Sueo Machi, Ethiopia 1960 Mr Jihui Qian France Chile 1974 DIRECTOR,DIVISION OF PUBLICINFORMATION: Germany Colombia Mauritius Greece Mr David Kyd Ghana Guatemala Senegal 1976 Haiti Qatar CHIEF EDITOR: Mr Lothar H. Wedekind Holy See 1961 United Arab Emirates EDITORIAL ASSISTANTS: Hungary Lebanon United Republic of Tanzania Iceland Mali Mr Rodoifo Quevenco, Ms Juanita Perez, India Zaire 1977 Ms Brenda Blann Indonesia Nicaragua 1962 LAYOUT/DESIGN: Ms Hannelore Wilczek Israel Italy Liberia 1983 CONTRIBUTORS TO DEPARTMENTS: Japan Saudi Arabia Namibia Ms S. Dallalah, Ms L. Diebold, Korea, Republic of 1963 Ms A.B. de Reynaud, Ms R. Spiegelberg Monaco 1984 Morocco Algeria China PRODUCTION SUPPORT: Myanmar Bolivia Mr P. Witzig, Mr R. Kelleher, Ms I. Emge, Netherlands Cdte d'lvoire 1986 Ms A. Primes, Ms M. Swoboda, New Zealand Libyan Arab Jamahiriya Zimbabwe Syrian Arab Republic Ms U. Szer, Mr W. Kreutzer, Norway Pakistan Uruguay 1991 Mr G. Demal, Mr A. Adler, Paraguay 1964 Latvia Mr R. Luttenfeldner, Mr F. Prochaska, Peru Cameroon Lithuania Mr P. Patak, Mr L. Nimetzki Poland Gabon 1992 Portugal Kuwait Romania Croatia Language Editions Nigeria Russian Federation Estonia TRANSLATION SUPPORT: Mr J. Rivals, South Africa 1965 Slovenia Ms E. Fritz Spain Costa Rica Cyprus FRENCH EDITION: Mr S. Drege, translation; Sri Lanka 1993 Sweden Jamaica Armenia Ms V. Laugier-Yamashita, copyediting Switzerland Kenya Czech Republic SPANISH EDITION: Equipo de Servicios de Thailand Madagascar Slovakia Traductores e Interpretes (ESTI), Havana, Tunisia 1966 Turkey 1994 Cuba, translation; Mr L Herrero, editing Jordan Ukraine Former Yugoslav Republic Panama CHINESE EDITION: China Nuclear Energy United Kingdom of Macedonia Industry Corporation Translation Service, of Great Britain 1967 Kazakhstan Beijing, translation, printing, distribution. and Northern Ireland Sierra Leone Marshall Islands United States of America Singapore Uzbekistan Venezuela Uganda Yemen The IAEA Bulletin is distributed without charge to a limited number of readers with an interest in the IAEA and the peaceful uses Eighteen ratifications were required to bring the IAEA's Statute into force By 29 July 1957, the States in bold face had ratified the Statute. of nuclear energy. Written requests should Year denotes year of membership. Names of the States are not necesse rily their historical designations. be addressed to the Editor. Extracts from For States in italic, membership has been approved by the IAEA General Conference and will take effect once the IAEA material contained in the IAEA Bulletin required legal instruments have Deen deposited. may be freely used elsewhere provided acknowledgement of their source is made. If the attribution indicates that the author of an article is not a member of the IAEA staff, per- mission to republish other than for the pur- pose of review must be sought from the author or originating organization.

Views expressed in any signed article or The International Atomic Energy Agency, which came into in advertisements appearing in the IAEA being on 29 July 1957, is an independent intergovern- Bulletin do not necessarily represent mental organization within the United Nations System. those of the International Atomic Energy Headquartered in Vienna, Austria, the Agency has more Agency and the IAEA accepts no respon- than 100 Member States who together work to carry out the main objectives of IAEA's Statute: To accelerate and sibility for them. enlarge the contribution of atomic energy to peace, health, and prosperity throughout the world and to ensure so far Advertising as it is able that assistance provided by it, or at its request Advertising correspondence should be or under its supervision or control, is not used in such a addressed to the IAEA Division of way as to further any military purpose. Publications, Sales and Promotion Unit, P.O. Box 100, A-1400 Vienna, Austria. IAEA headquarters, at the Vienna International Centre. Until now, one of the biggest dosimeters combine an easy-to- the Aloka EPDs can go anywhere problems with reading personal read digital display with a wide you go. Which may prove to be exposure closes has been the size of measuring range suiting a wide quite a sizable improvement, indeed. the monitoring equipment. Which is range of needs. precisely why we're introducing the But the big news is how very SCIENCE AND HUMANITY Electronic Pocket Dosimeter (EPD) small and lightweight they've "MY DOSE mini™" PDM-Series. become. Able to fit into any pocket ALQKA These high-performance and weighing just 50-90 grams, ¥////// ALOKA CO, LTD. Model Energy Range Application 6-22-1 Mure. Mitaka-shi, Tokyo 181. Japan PDM-101 60keV- 0.01 - 99.99 JJSV High sensitivity, photon Telephone: (0422) 45-5111 PDM-102 40 keV - 1 - 9,999 /JSV General use, photon Facsimile: (0422) 45-4058 PDM-173 40 keV - 0.01 - 99.99 mSv General use, photon Telex: 02822-344 PDM-107 20 keV - 1 - 9,999 IJSV Low energy, photon To: 3rd Export Section PDM-303 thermal - fast 0.01 - 99.99 mSv Neutron Overseas Marketing Dept. ADM-102 40 keV - 0.001 - 99.99 mSv With vibration & sound alarm, photon Attn: N.Odaka

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