Early AEC Safeguards and TSO Beginnings

In 1967, a committee at Brookhaven National Laboratory suggested that the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) should establish a safeguards technical support organization at a national laboratory. In February 1968, the AEC established the Technical Support Organization (TSO) at Brookhaven. The AEC 1968 safeguards R&JD program and the first TSO task assignments are summarized. To illustrate the nature of the national safeguards activities of TSO during the following 20 years, some of the many field exercises, systems studies, special project, and technical assistance on implementing safeguards measures are described briefly.