Transparency of National and Regional Safeguards Systems

With public attention worldwide focused on efforts to prevent horizontal proliferation of nuclear weapons, greater availability of information on safeguards systems for different countries and regions is important. In particular, expanded unclassified descriptions of national safeguards systems would enable experts from different countries or regions to more fruitfully share ideas for improvements in preventive safeguards. In the United States there are significant gaps in understanding of safeguards in European countries. The author advocates expanded informal and formal interactions between nuclear material control experts in different countries, to facilitate improvements in protection against internal inventory shrinkage (i.e. insider theft) and unauthorized production in plutonium, highly enriched uranium, and fissile isotope enrichment facilities. INTRODUCTION