Past, Present and Future of Safeguards in Lithuania

Changing Safeguards climate has been a phenomenon for already ten years 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 was signed in 1992, two distinctive periods of five years could be discerned. Safeguards was a new matter in Lithuania back in 1992 and its perception was not a one day work. For instance, 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. Subsidiary Arrangements to the Safeguards Agreement and the national regulation for nuclear material accounting and control came into force in 1997. That year could be considered as the end of the first five- year period, which could be called an initial stage of Safeguards application in Lithuania. In March 1998 Lithuania signed the Additional Protocol to its Safeguards Agreement. After two years it was ratified and came into force on the 5th of July 2000. That was a certain change and a new stage of Safeguards application in Lithuania. The year 2000 was also the time when the EURATOM system appeared on the horizon. The 1st of January 2004 is the most likely date of accession of Lithuania to the European Union and it can be said that Safeguards in Lithuania is heading to the next generation. This paper is aimed to review developments, which took place and the experience gained through the ten years of Safeguards application in Lithuania and also to present some considerations about the approaching changes