International acceptability of advanced safeguarding techniques

There are active development programs now under way to significantly enhance the effectiveness of international safeguarding. Advanced safeguarding techniques now under development include new material accounting methods utilizing nondestructive assay techniques, more reliable surveillance instrumentation, tamper-resistant and tamper-indicating seals, new means of utilizing continuous human inspection, and systems that incorporate both passive and active use-denial technologies. Before these new safeguarding techniques are utilized, however, they must be acceptable to the international community. This will unquestionably result in a compromise between what is technically feasible and what is politically acceptable. This report highlights many of the elements common to advanced safeguarding techniques that impact directly upon international acceptability. The concept of acceptability is viewed from the perspective of three different groups: (1) those States seeking upgraded safeguards, (2) those States having safeguards imposed upon them, and (3) the International Atomic Energy Agency. In general, a more conducive climate exists today for the acceptance of advanced safeguarding techniques than at any period in the past; but the differences between advanced safeguards and those safeguards being employed today are so large that considerable opposition to their implementation can be expected