- Status
- Ongoing
Summary
INSC partners will receive state-of-the-art training of Nuclear Regulatory Authorities (NRA) in implementing NRAs’ safeguards obligations with an emphasis on the safeguards implemented for States with comprehensive safeguards agreements and additional protocols in force.
Background
The regime of non-proliferation of nuclear weapons plays a vital role in fostering peaceful uses of nuclear energy. Nuclear safeguards, implemented in order to verify compliance of States with their non-proliferation commitments, is a key element of the regime.
The IAEA safeguards, initiated in 1961, have evolved to a world-wide system currently applied to verify compliance of States with their commitments under the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of nuclear weapons.
In the course of nuclear safeguards evolution new approaches have been developed and are applied (e.g. the promulgation of Additional Protocols and integrated safeguards approaches), resulting in broadening the requirements to be met by the nuclear regulatory authorities or authorities in charge of nuclear material control in their countries.
However, in some countries of Asia, Africa and South America, which possess inventories of nuclear material, operate or construct nuclear facilities, or plan to acquire nuclear facilities in the future, the nuclear regulatory authorities have limited experience, technical resources and trained personnel to fully comply with these enhanced obligations. This gap creates a clear need for targeted capacity-building support.
Objectives
The overall objective of the project was to strengthen the capabilities of the beneficiary in charge of nuclear safeguards to fulfil the countries’ international safeguards obligations by promoting effective nuclear safeguards and the use of EU best practices in that area, and by supporting the enhancement of capacities of the Safeguards organisation.
In this context, the project proposed standardized training on a multinational scale, which not only allowed for skills enhancement but also enabled trainees from beneficiary countries to establish their own contacts with regional and international partners and to develop their networks within the organizations of EU member states.
Results
3.1 Promoting effective nuclear safeguards and the use of EU best practices
The project has developed a program for a one-week training whose content should allow the trainee, at the end of the training, to:
- understand the international and EURATOM Safeguards agreements including the Additional Protocols and the Small Quantity Protocols,
- be able to contribute to the practical implementation of Safeguards in their country in applying the principles of nuclear material accountancy and control,
- understand differences and interfaces between nuclear Safeguards and nuclear security,
- be able to describe Safeguards techniques and to practically use some of them.
In addition to lectures, a case-study exercise, to be done in working groups, was elaborated with the aim to address main issues on a State System of Accounting and Control on a dummy facility.
For the sessions in Europe, the training was enhanced with a laboratory exercise on gamma-ray spectrometry and neutron counting, set up to practically demonstrate how to analyse uranium enrichment and plutonium isotopic composition, using state of the art gamma-ray techniques as well as neutron counting.
The project delivered 8 training sessions: 3 in Europe, 2 outside Europe (in Asia and in Africa) and 3 online sessions (developed to tackle mobility restriction due to the pandemic).
Through these 8 training sessions, promoting effective nuclear safeguards and EU best practices has been disseminated to 23 countries shared across 5 regions.
The regions that hosted the non-EU training sessions benefited the most from the project:
- 29 employees from Africa (Benin, Ghana, Mauritania, Nigeria and South Africa) were trained,
- 25 employees from South Asia (Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mongolia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam) were trained.
The other trainees came, 18 of them from North Africa - Near & Middle East (Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Morocco and Turkey), 9 of them from Latin America (Brazil and Mexico) and 7 of them from Eastern Europe-Central Asia (Kyrgyzstan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan).
In addition, in order to promote cooperation of partners, trainees were invited to present example of practical implementation of Safeguards in their country during face-to-face sessions. In this regard, the following examples of practical implementation were shared with the trainees:
- State System of accounting and Control and System for Nuclear Material Accounting and Control in France
- Implementing Safeguards in Japan
- Implementing Safeguards at Fukushima Daiichi
- Implementation of Safeguards in Nigeria
- Implementation of Safeguards in Ukraine
- Implementing Safeguards in Ghana
3.2 Support the enhancement of capacities of NRAs of the partner countries and their TSOs
The project aimed to reach the employees of the organisations in charge of nuclear safeguards in the INSC partner countries. This concerns various types of organisations, depending on their role and activities: use, control, transportation, processing, etc. of nuclear materials.
In this project, staff from Nuclear Regulatory Authorities (NRA), Technical Support Organisations (TSO) but also Ministries, Customs, Operators and Research & Development organisations (R&D) were trained.
In total, through the 8 training sessions implemented, 88 employees coming from 31 different organisations were trained.
These employees worked for 19 NRAs, 5 Ministries or Customs, 5 Operators or R&D organisations and 2 TSOs. In total, more than 80% of the trainees came from a regulator (NRA or Ministries).
According to the results of the knowledge tests realised at the end of each training session, above 16/20, it can be considered that the training program has achieved its objective to enhance the skills of the trainees regarding the practical implementation of the safeguards in this topic.
In addition, questioned about the content of the course, its relevance to their needs, and the quality of the knowledge and know-how provided, the trainees expressed also a high level of satisfaction.