Nuclear safeguards

Nuclear safeguards are measures used to verify that nuclear materials and facilities are not diverted from peaceful purposes. They combine declarations, inspections, monitoring, and material accounting.

Nuclear material accountancy: A system for tracking nuclear material through measurements, records, and balance calculations. Material balances help inspectors detect unexplained losses from declared inventories.
Atoms for Peace: A 1953 United States initiative promoting international cooperation in civilian nuclear technology. Its proposed international control arrangements helped set the stage for a safeguards agency.
Comprehensive safeguards agreement: An agreement requiring safeguards on all nuclear material in a non-nuclear-weapon state party to the NPT. It is the standard legal basis for safeguards in many NPT states.
Nuclear security: Measures to prevent, detect, and respond to theft, sabotage, or unauthorized access involving nuclear material or facilities. Security protects against malicious acts; safeguards verify that nuclear material is not diverted.
Safeguards noncompliance: Failure by a state to meet obligations under a nuclear safeguards agreement. Cases of noncompliance test how verification findings become institutional and diplomatic responses.
International Atomic Energy Agency safeguards: The IAEA system for verifying states’ declarations about nuclear material and related activities. These safeguards provide the principal international verification system for non-proliferation commitments.
International Atomic Energy Agency: An international organization established in 1957 to promote peaceful nuclear uses and verify safeguards commitments. The agency became the central institution for applying international safeguards.
Small quantities protocol: A protocol that suspends or simplifies parts of a comprehensive safeguards agreement for states with little or no nuclear material. Its eligibility rules determine whether a state’s minimal nuclear program receives reduced verification.
Nuclear safety: The prevention of accidents and mitigation of their consequences in nuclear facilities and activities. Safety manages accident risks, while safeguards address diversion and undeclared activity.
Nuclear latency: The condition of possessing much of the technical capacity needed to produce nuclear weapons without having built them. Safeguards must assess peaceful programs whose capabilities can shorten the path to weapon production.

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