AST June 2018 Magazine Volume 24 | Page 62

Volume 24 the basis for the IAEA’s nu- These form clear verification work, which provides assurances to the international commu- nity that nuclear material remains in peaceful use. June 2018 The IAEA verifies the information in Edition these declarations to determine if a State is ful- filling its safeguards obligations. Previously, these reports were delivered in a number of predominantly paper-based ways, such as post, fax, e-mail or in-person The new State Declaration Portal, runs on a se- delivery to IAEA headquarters in Vienna. cure online network, saving both time and effort in information exchange with Member States, explained Tero Varjoranta, IAEA Deputy Director General and Head of the Department of Safe- guards. “This process is normally quite lengthy and la- bour intensive,” explained Alain Rialhe, Head of the Declared Information Analysis Section at the IAEA. Safeguards declarations contain informa- “After we finish processing these declarations, we tion about States’ nuclear material inven- provide comments and feedback to the State. And tories and other related activities. this could involve some back and forth.” Experts in the Nuclear Material Laboratory use specialized tools to carefully analyze samples of nuclear material as part of the safeguards verification process. (Courtesy of IAEA) 60