An Inspectors View of Recent Developments In International Safeguards

The opening for signature of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) on July 1,1968, has stimulated very great interest in international safeguards on the part of those who previously considered their particular nuclear programs to be immune to the application of safeguards. Nuclear scientists and engineers in many countries who up until recently thought it inconceivable that their respective governments would accept safe- guards on entire national programs have suddenly realized that they can no longer permit themselves the luxury of avoiding any responsibility for thinking seriously about the implications of the NPT. One result of this sudden awakening has been the voicing of considerable dissent, some coherent, some not, about the desirability and viability of a sys- tem of international safeguards. Much of the coherent dissent comes from individ- uals who are genuinely dissatisfied with the continuing lack of quantification of the technical objectives of safeguards.