| Abstract |
The application of international safeguards to gas centrifuge enrichment plants (GCEPs, hereafter referred to merely as enrichment plants) has been relatively consistent since the advent of the Hexapartite Safeguards Project (HSP) in the 1980s. The notable addition has been environmental sampling that was added following the 93+2 program. Recently however, the efficacy of enrichment plant safeguards has been impugned because facilities now exceed the 2,000t-SWU/yr size on which HSP assumptions were made, and developments in centrifuge cascade technology have led to more flexible cascades and methods of operation. Ameliorative steps to redress this matter have now been proposed by the IAEA to the IAEA Director Generals Standing Advisory Group on Safeguards Implementation (SAGSI).1 The suggested changes, not yet clarified or approved, have been consolidated under the appellation Model Safeguards Approach for Enrichment Facilities. A contributor to this new approach was a technical meeting that was convened in Vienna, Austria in April 2005 to identify advanced safeguards equipment and measures that might enhance the current Hexapartite Safeguards Model for enrichment plants.2 The participants considered where enhancements were required, whether or not useful techniques for accomplishing these goals presently exist, and recommendations for improvement. Recommended techniques and instruments were expected to be secure, reliable, cost-effective, and sustainable. The model, still in nascent form, was reviewed and endorsed by the IAEAs Standing Advisory Group on Safeguards Implementation in December 2005. The approach as it currently exists can be implemented in conjunction with traditional safeguards. This paper will examine the benefits postulated for this new safeguards approach from an economic, feasibility, reliability, and practicality standpoint. The assessment does not deal with the more complicated issue of integrated safeguards since the provisions outlined in the Model Safeguards Approach were intended for application to facilities under traditional safeguards. |
