Year
1995
Abstract
President Clinton proposed several initiatives to promote nuclear nonproliferation in his September 1993 address to the United Nations General Assembly. One initiative was the United States offer to place excess fissile material under International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safeguards. In 1994, three Department of Energy (DOE) facilities were identified as part of a phased approach for initial implementation: the Y-12 plant at Oak Ridge, Tennessee; the Hanford Site in Washington state, and the Rocky Flats Environmental Technology Site (RFETS) near Denver, Colorado. Safeguards implementation began with the initial IAEA inspection of excess highly enriched uranium at Oak Ridge in September 1994. The initial inspection of excess plutonium took place at Hanford in December 1994. Preparations for IAEA inspections are underway at Rocky Flats. This paper describes the interactions between the United States and the IAEA to prepare for and facilitate these inspections, and the continuing program to provide for the application of IAEA safeguards at DOE facilities. Particular attention is given to the technical exchanges which took place between the IAEA and DOE in preparing for safeguards at Oak Ridge, Hanford, and Rocky Flats. The approach used at these sites can be applied to future sites if they are selected by the IAEA from the list of U.S. facilities eligible for the application of safeguards. The approach consists of six tasks: 1) preparation for implementation, 2) safeguards implementation, 3) Facility Attachment negotiations, 4) technical assistance, 5) review and revision of the eligible facility list and 6) interagency interactions.