IAEA safeguards: Evolution or revolution?

IAEA safeguards have developed steadily over the past forty years one the b asis of agreements about the prevention of proliferation signed by the part icipating states. Initiatives such as the Baruch Plan and "Atoms for Peace" resulted in IAEA being founded in 1957. The Agency's mandate comprises the promotion of the peaceful uses of nuclear technologies and safeguards for proliferation control. The first inspection of a small research reactor was carried out in Norway in 1962 after intense international debates and agreements. Today, IAEA mon itors approximately 900 facilities with 110,000 significant objects of nucl ear materials worldwide. One important component of international agreements is the Non-proliferatio n Treaty (Treaty on the Non-proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, NPT) prolonge d for an indefinite period of time in 1995. 187 non-nuclear weapon states a re parties to the NPT. The events in Iraq and the People's Republic of China in the nineties led t o the political consensus that the existing safeguards system had to be upg raded. On the one hand, a set of agreements were developed which strengthen the ex isting possibilities of control and also enable IAEA to check not only the correctness of information supplied by a state but also undeclared informat ion about nuclear activities in a state by using its extended competencies. Moreover, measures were adopted in the course of debates which are intende d to optimize the inspection and surveillance system of the Agency even aga inst the back-ground of the limited funds available.