ESTABLISHING ETHICAL GUIDELINES FOR DISSEMINATION OF NUCLEAR SAFEGUARDS INFORMATION

Peer review is an established standard for publication of scientific papers, yet peer review alone is insufficient to reasonably assure that scientific papers do not seriously deviate from ethical standards accepted in the scientific community. For this reason, scientific institutions and professional societies need to formulate and promote appropriate ethical guidelines. In the United States, the Commission on Research Integrity has recently published an important report on this subject, “Integrity and Misconduct in Research”. The report states that authors and reviewers of scientific papers should not, “with intent to deceive, or in reckless disregard for the truth, (a) state or present a material or significant falsehood; or (b) omit a fact so that what is stated or presented as a whole states or presents a material or significant falsehood. ” Because international nuclear safeguards has traditionally incorporated a high degree of secrecy, and some authors have been subjected to political pressure to refer to detection of an anomaly by technical means as “detection of diversion”, there has evolved an inadequate ethical foundation for disseminating information to the public on international nuclear safeguards. This subject has been discussed within small groups at safeguards conferences during recent years. There is now a need to formally create ethical guidelines for authors and reviewers of nuclear safeguards papers. Specific guidelines are needed for proper use of safeguards terminology. The process of drafting ethical guidelines for dissemination of nuclear safeguards information can begin with a careful considerationof accurate useof primary terminology.