INTERNATIONAL SAFEGUARDS ARE BASED ON WELL QUALIFIED AND MOTIVATED PROFESSIONALS

By IAEA Statute, the paramount consideration in recruiting IAEA staff is to secure employees of the highest standards of efficiency, technical competence, and integrity. It is important to be able to locate the best gualified and motivated scientific and technical candidates who are prepared for the challenge of living overseas and working in an international environment. They are essential to strengthening the IAEA and enabling the IAEA to carry out its functions and fulfill its objectives. In particular, the IAEA has established, by Statute, a staff of inspectors responsible for carrying out on-site inspections to determine compliance with international safeguards agreements. This paper describes the role and job of international safeguards inspectors and the overall makeup of the safeguards staff. In addition, the results of two related studies performed for ACDA are summarized. One study for ACDA concluded that, to a great extent, the credibility of IAEA safeguards is determined by inspector performance. The study identified two very important considerations. First, inspector performance determines inspection quality; and secondly, the success of the safeguards system is dependent on inspector reliability. A separate study for ACDA concluded that, based on discussions with a cross section of the private U.S. nuclear industry, there was large potential interest in the IAEA, but there was little knowledge of the IAEA and its mission. More importantly, the study concluded that a large pool of well gualified nuclear professionals exists in the U.S. and would be of value to the basic mission of the IAEA. Thus, for the IAEA to function efficiently and effectively it is important that its staff is well gualified and highly motivated. Continued efforts are necessary to attract and retain highly competent and dedicated staff from throughout the world.