Aspects of Safeguards Application in Lithuania

Changing Safeguards environment has been a phenomenon in Lithuania since the Agreement between the Government of the Republic of Lithuania and the International Atomic Energy Agency for the Application of Safeguards in connection with the Treaty on the Non-proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (Safeguards Agreement) was signed in 1992. Safeguards was a new matter in Lithuania back then and its perception was not a one day work. Development of the national system of accounting for and control of nuclear material took years. Safeguards implementation in Lithuania was not a simple and easy task for the IAEA either. The Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant inherited by Lithuania from the Soviet Union brought its particularity as there was no precedent experience in safeguarding the RBMK type reactors. In March 1998 Lithuania signed the Additional Protocol to its Safeguards Agreement. After two years it was ratified and came into force on 5 July 2000. That was a certain change and a new stage of Safeguards application in Lithuania. On May 1 2004 Lithuania together with 9 more countries became a member of the European Union (EU) and at the same time of the European Atomic Energy Community (EURATOM). From the nuclear safeguards application in Lithuania point of you that meant the following changes: start of the EURATOM safeguards application and shift from the bilateral safeguards agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to the trilateral one between the EU non-nuclear weapon states, EURATOM and the IAEA. This paper is aimed to briefly review developments, which took place through the course of safeguards application in Lithuania