Volume 7, Number 2
December 2009

International Safeguards Technical Division

The International Safeguards Technical Division (ISD) completed a banner year in July 2009, serving the international safeguards community through INMM involvement with the continuing important developments in international safeguards and nonproliferation. This report highlights the ISD activities.

International Safeguards at the 50th INMM Annual Meeting
The 50th Annual INMM Meeting in Tucson, Arizona, July 12-16, 2009, proved to be a grand celebration concluding INMM's 50th anniversary year. ISD was especially gratified with the excellent Opening Plenary and Closing Plenary sessions. Olli Heinonen, deputy director general and head of the Department of Safeguards at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), gave the meeting a good sendoff with his fine talk, "20/20 Vision: the Future of international Safeguards." And Hans Blix, former director general of IAEA and head of the United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission for Iraq (UNMOVIC), provided a memorable closing to the 50th Annual Meeting, touching many of his listeners with his thoughtful talk, "Can We Now Move Toward Peace and Disarmament?"

ISD organized Special Sessions on eight topics in 13 sessions at the 2009 INMM Annual Meeting.

In the Special Session on The Next Steps in International Safeguards, authors of articles in the special summer JNMM issue on that topic (see below) made presentations. There were 11 presentations in two sessions by Kaoru Naito, Japan; John Carlson, Australia; Michael Rosenthal; U.S.; Gleb Efremov, Russian Federation; Stamatios Tsalas, European Commission; Trond Bjornard, U.S.; Jill Cooley, IAEA; James Casterton, Canada; Jacques Baute, IAEA; Richard Wallace, U.S.; and Jim Larrimore, U.S.

ISD assisted the INMM Japan Chapter with the special session on Safeguards in Japan: Achievements and Challenges, which marked the Japan Chapter's 30th anniversary, as well as the INMM's 50th anniversary. The session was divided in two parts, chaired by Yoshinori Meguro and Masao Senzaki, Japan; and by Shirley Johnson, U.S. and Jill Cooley, IAEA. It included presentations on Japan's Efforts Toward Achieving Effective and Efficient IAEA Safeguards; The J-MOX Project; JAEA's Efforts for Safeguards Technology Development; Safeguards Implementation at Rokkasho Nuclear Fuel Cycle Facilities; and Future Challenges and DOE/NNSA-JAEA Cooperation for the Development of Advanced Safeguards.

The Special Session on Global Safeguards R&D was co-chaired by Haeok Lee, U.S., and Willem Janssens, Joint Research Centre, European Commission, Italy. The session was very well attended and included six high-quality presentations from ABACC, Australia, European Union (through ESARDA), Republic of Korea, Russian Federation, and United States. The presentations were followed by a panel discussion in which the speakers participated, joined by representatives from the European Commission, France, Germany, Denmark, Finland, the U.S. and the IAEA. Two main points emerged during the panel debate: 1) the need to have a cross-disciplinary approach to safeguards, bringing together people from different horizons and disciplines, especially when seeking to detect undeclared activities or facilities, and the need to use an international collaboration in this area, and 2) the need to have R&D not only in the hardware and technical field but also R&D in the areas of collection and analysis of data and soft skills (like observation, negotiations, investigation, team-work, etc).

The special session on Next Generation Safeguards Initiative (NGSI), chaired by Mark Whitney, U.S. DOE, addressed the major new initiative of the Office of Nonproliferation and International Security (NA-24) in the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). Its goal is to strengthen international safeguards by revitalizing U.S. technical assets and leveraging partnerships to keep pace with the demands and challenges posed by a growing global interest in nuclear energy. It emphasizes development of both technology and human expertise. The session began with an overview, included mention of upcoming events, and closed with time for questions and answers. The presentations made were: NGSI: Program Overview and Progress Update; NGSI: Human Capital Development; International Collaborations in Process Monitoring; Development of LIBS for Safeguards Applications; ABACC's implementation of safeguards at the Brazilian gas centrifuge uranium enrichment plant at Resende; Nuclear Safeguards Infrastructure Development: Technical Assistance to the Vietnam Atomic Energy Commission; and Nuclear Safeguards Infrastructure Development: Technical Assistance to the Vietnam Agency for Radiation and Nuclear Safety. This session had room for less than half of the papers describing NGSI activities presented at the 50th Annual INMM Meeting.

The special session on MOX -- What does the Future Hold? provided a forum for discussing the planned future for global use of the MOX fuel cycle, including relevant safeguards and nonproliferation issues. The well-attended session attracted a number of international participants, including from France, Japan, Korea, Great Britain, Australia, United States, and the IAEA. The subject matter ranged from historical accounts to future plans, with the specifics ranging from safeguards to the overall national fuel cycle.

The session was divided into two sub-sessions with one session focused on MOX policy and the nuclear industry, chaired by Scott DeMuth, U.S., and Yusuke Kuno, Japan, and the other on nonproliferation and safeguards issues, chaired by Trond Bjornard, U.S., and Caroline Jorant, France.

Process Monitoring was featured at the 2009 INMM Annual Meeting in a two-part special session and in several other presentations. Part 1 on Solution-Based Monitoring focused on current realities in the monitoring of the transport of solutions through reprocessing plants. The co-chairs, John Howell, U.K., and Mike Ehinger, U.S., presented their ideas for advancing the application of process monitoring. Other presentations were given by Tom Burr, Hironobu Nakamura and Claire Longo. Part II on Non-Solution Based Applications, chaired by Tom Burr, U.S. and Mark Schanfein, U.S., focused on broader types of process monitoring. Seven papers were presented by Ben Cipiti, David Beddingfield, Sam Bryan, Michael Green, Jon Schwantes, James Henkel and Kosuke Yamaya.

In the two-part special session on Design Information Verification, Martin Moeslinger, IAEA, chaired one session and Joao Goncalves, European Commission (EC), chaired the second. DIV is becoming increasingly significant as nuclear fuel cycle facilities grow in size, complexity, and flexibility. The wide interest was indicated by the twelve papers were presented and a lively panel discussion. Presenters and panelists were from ABACC, the EC Joint Research Center-Italy, EC-Luxembourg, France, IAEA, the UK and the U.S. The primary issues addressed were the continuing need for enhanced DIV methods, the responsibilities of and the impact on facility designers and operators, and the importance of operator cooperation when DIV is performed.

A two-part special session addressed Safeguarding Gas Centrifuge Enrichment Plants. Orpet Peixoto, ABACC, chaired one session, and Peter Friend U.K., chaired the second. Thirteen papers were presented, with authors from Australia, IAEA and the United States.

Further IS Technical Sessions. The Annual INMM Meeting also included a wide-ranging set of international safeguards technical sessions. These sessions addressed Safeguards Policies, Issues and Challenges (Chair: Kaoru Naito, Japan); State-Level and Integrated Safeguards (Chair: Therese Renis, IAEA); U.S. Additional Protocol Implementation (Chair: Michael Rosenthal, U.S.); Safeguards Information: Satellite Imagery and Environmental Sampling (Chair: Jacques Baute, IAEA); Advances in Safeguards Implementation (Chair: John Begovich, U.S.); Containment and Surveillance, and Unattended and Remote Monitoring (Chair: Gotthard Stein, Germany); Nonproliferation and Safeguards Human Capital Development (Co-chairs: Dunbar Lockwood, U.S. and Willem Janssens, European Commission); and Nonproliferation; Safeguards Training - Programs and Results (Co-Chairs: John McClelland-Kerr, U.S., and Roger Blue, U.K.); Safeguarding Spent Nuclear Fuel (joint with WM) (Chair: Stamatios Tsalas, European Commission); Spent Fuel Measurements (joint with MCA and WM) (Chair: David Bracken, U.S.); and Measuring Radionuclide Content in Spent Nuclear Fuel (joint with MCA and WM) (Chair: Gus Caffrey, U.S.).

If there were any complaints from the international safeguards community about the 2009 INMM Annual Meeting, it was that there were so many interesting sessions and papers that it was impossible to attend everything that one would have wished.

2009 ISD Divisional meetings: Vilnius, Lithuania, May; Tucson, AZ, July.
At the ESARDA Symposium in Vilnius, Lithuania, (May 26-28, 2009), a successful ISD meeting was held on May 25, chaired by ISD Chair Jim Larrimore, and followed by a congenial dinner attended by more than 25 people. Safeguards on final disposal of spent fuel was the main topic, introduced with presentations by Goran Dahlin, SSM, Sweden, and Elina Martikka, STUK, Finland, reporting good news about the now ongoing good cooperation between IAEA, the European Commission and STUK on safeguards for the Onkalo geological repository project. There was a lively discussion about this new type of nuclear facility, which is moving closer to coming under international safeguards. Michel Richard gave an impressive update on safeguards and nonproliferation developments in France in response to the growing nuclear renaissance. Also discussed was the news of the day on the second nuclear test by DPRK. At the 2009 ESARDA Symposium in Vilnius, Lithuania on May 26, 2009, Jim Larrimore presented a report on the results from the 2008 Workshop.

There was a large turnout to the International Safeguards Division (ISD) meeting on Sunday afternoon, July 12, before the opening of the 50th Annual Meeting of the INMM. Jim Larrimore chaired the meeting, which started with Ollie Heinonen, IAEA DDG-SG, talking informally about current hot topics for the IAEA. Although Syria was the nonproliferation case on which he focused, Mr. Heinonen's key message was that the real challenge for the IAEA is the next nonproliferation challenge: events have been unpredictable and surprising.

That discussion was followed by reports on safeguards developments from around the world: Stamatios Tsalas (Europe), Odilon Marcuzzo do Canto (ABACC), John Carlson (Australia), Kaoru Naito (Japan), and Michel Richard (France). Gotthard Stein talked about the preparations for the 2010 NPT Review Conference. After a preview of the many ISD special sessions during the 50th Annual Meeting, the next feature topic was a presentation by Ken Sorenson concerning the progress of his ad hoc working group, which is assisting the INMM with strategic planning.

The object is to see how INMM can best meet the needs of the industry and the membership with a time horizon of the next five to 10 years. The working group began in April, and is aiming to have recommendations to the INMM Executive Committee at its December 2009 meeting. The final topic of the division meeting was a review of the work in the area of education and training, given by Debbie Dickman. The effort has been a joint collaboration of INMM and ESARDA, an initiative begun at the INMM/ESARDA Santa Fe Workshop in 2005 and given a big boost at the Joint Tokyo Workshop in October 2008.

2008 INMM/ESARDA Tokyo Workshop follow-up
ISD organized the 6th INMM-ESARDA Workshop, held on October 6-9, 2008, at The International House of Japan in Tokyo, Japan, with the Japan Chapter of INMM and ESARDA. The INMM Korea Chapter also cooperated in the Workshop organization. The Non-proliferation and Arms Control Division participated in developing a Working Group program, and Mark Leek, Chair, Student Activities Committee, organized a Working Group program on nonproliferation and safeguards education.

The topic of the 2008 Tokyo Workshop was "Meeting Safeguards Challenges in an Expanding Nuclear World" with the main themes: Safeguards Implementation and State Evaluation, Technical Progress – The Safeguards Toolbox, Safeguards and Nonproliferation Policy and Institutional Issues, andSafeguards and Nonproliferation Academic and Training Programs. The Working Group reports from this workshop are posted on the INMM Web site. The CD Proceedings for the Workshop has been prepared and distributed by ESARDA. ISD has been supporting follow-up on the Action Plan proposed on education and training by Working Group 4.

Special Summer 2009 issue of JNMM
ISD organized a special Summer 2009 issue of JNMM on the topic "The Next Steps in International Safeguards," with a view to the 2010 NPT Review Conference. The 114-page issue opens with a Foreword by Olli Heinonen, Deputy Director General for Safeguards, IAEA, and in 13 articles covers a broad scope of safeguards and nonproliferation, with authors from Australia, Canada, Germany, Japan, Russian Federation, United States, IAEA, and the European Commission. The special issue was distributed at the 2009 INMM 50th Annual Meeting, where most of the authors presented their articles in a two-part special session. Copies of the special Summer 2009 JNMM issue were distributed to IAEA Member State Missions in Vienna at the beginning of September 2009 with the assistance of Jill Cooley at the IAEA.

ISD Management and Outreach.
Ana Claudia Raffo Caiado joined the ISD Management Team in August 2009, with Michael Whitaker moving over to the INMM Executive Committee. An overview of the International Safeguards Division and a comprehensive tutorial on international safeguards is posted on the INMM Web site.

Jim Larrimore, Chair, INMM ISD; Gotthard Stein, Vice Chair, INMM ISD; George Baldwin, Ana Claudia Raffo Caiado, Susan Pepper, Mark Schanfein and Marius Stein, ISD Management Team