Year
1968
Abstract
The Division of Nuclear Materials Safeguards, established in July 196? and reporting to the Director of Regulation, will administer safeguards for all nuclear materials held by AEC licensees. The Headquarters staff is physically located at Bethesda, Maryland; District Safeguards Offices have been established at Newark, New Jersey, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and Berkeley, California. The Division is responsible for promulgating licensee regulations, reviewing and approving licensees' safeguards programs including prelicensing evaluations of proposed new facilities, setting of license conditions relating to safeguards requirements, inspecting licensees' operations against regulatory requirements, and communicating with licensees concerning observed safeguards deficiencies and subsequent enforcement of regulatory requirements. The Division of Nuclear Materials Safeguards, reporting to the Director of Regulation, is responsible for administering safeguards for all nuclear material held by licensees, regardless of its origin, including Government-owned materials in licensee plants and laboratories. The establishment of this Division, the most recent addition to the regulatory organization, was announced by the Com- mission on May 3, 1967; assignment of personnel began in September 1967. After reviewing some background information, I will focus my remarks on the domestic licensee safeguards program; specifically, I will discuss those aspects relating to the responsibilities, the organizational functions and structure of the Division of Nuclear Materials Safeguards, arid conclude with several comments on where the program stands today and some thoughts about the immediate future.