Development and implementation of bilateral
safeguards measures that ensure nuclear material and items exported from
Australia remain in exclusively peaceful use.
Milestone
B1
Internationally agreed standards for
physical protection of nuclear material are applied to all AONM.
Activities
ASNO continued its practice of requiring
exporters to adopt specific procedures to ensure appropriate levels of physical
protection for shipments of uranium ore concentrates (UOC) from Australia to
the port of unloading overseas. These
procedures included checking on the physical condition of the containers and
verifying the container and seal numbers at each port of unloading or
transhipment.
ASNO is involved in the development of
international standards for physical protection of nuclear material, and uses
suitable opportunities to promote their universal adoption. For example, from 15-19 November 1999, at
the IAEA in Vienna, Mr John Bellinger, Head, Nuclear Materials Accountancy
and Control (NMAC) Section, participated in an Informal Open-Ended Experts
Meeting to discuss whether there is a need to revise the Convention on the
Physical Protection of Nuclear Material (CPPNM). In order to reach a
decision on this, the Experts Meeting established a Working Group which met
from 19-26 February and 26-30 June 2000.
Mr Bellinger participated in each of these Working Group meetings
and Mr Andrew Leask also attended the June meeting. The Experts intend to finalise their
deliberations by April 2001 and then reconvene in plenary in May 2001 to make a
final decision on the original question of whether there is a need to revise
the CPPNM. ASNO will participate in all
stages of this important series of meetings.
Performance Assessment
Reporting by conversion facilities,
safeguards authorities and shipping agencies confirms that all AONM shipments
from Australia safely reached their destinations. The specified physical protection measures effectively
contributed to this outcome.
Milestone B2
AONM in countries with which Australia has
concluded nuclear safeguards agreements is accounted for in accordance with
procedures and standards prescribed under relevant agreements.
Activities
Exports of Uranium Ore Concentrates (UOC)
Between 1 July 1999 and 30 June 2000 there
were 46 shipments of UOC from Australia.
These were made by Energy Resources of Australia Ltd (ERA), Ranger Mine,
Northern Territory and WMC (Olympic Dam Corporation) Pty Ltd, South
Australia. Exports totalled 8,023
tonnes of U3O8 as UOC; export earnings were over $367
million. Further information on
Australia's uranium exports is at page 85.
The UOC were shipped to conversion
facilities in the UK, the US, France and Canada. ASNO notified each export to the safeguards authorities in
relevant countries. In each case,
receipt was confirmed to ASNO by those safeguards authorities. ASNO also notified the IAEA of each export. In the case of exports to Canada,
notifications were made pursuant to Article 35(a) of Australias NPT safeguards
agreement with the IAEA. In the case of
exports to nuclear-weapon States, notifications were made under the IAEAs
Voluntary Reporting Scheme, and also under the Additional Protocol.
The shippers weight for each consignment
was entered on ASNOs record of the relevant countrys inventory of AONM. These weights, subject to amendment by
measured Shipper/Receiver Differences, are the basic source data for ASNOs
system of accounting for AONM throughout the international nuclear fuel cycle.
Operation of bilateral agreements
Reports from ASNOs counterpart
organisations were provided in a timely fashion and in the agreed format which
enabled straightforward analysis and reconciliation with ASNOs records.
During May and June 2000, Mr John
Bellinger and Nuclear Materials Accountant, Mr Nick Doulgeris, held
discussions with ASNOs counterpart organisations in the US, Canada, Japan, the
ROK, the UK and Euratom. Accounting figures
were reconciled and a range of issues were discussed. Reconciliation of inventories presented few problems. Progress was made in improving the bilateral
safeguards system, and there were useful exchanges of experience. As an outcome of bilateral consultations
with Euratom in Brussels in November 1999, ASNO and its counterpart the Euratom
Safeguards Office (ESO) have established a series of regular meetings which
have proved invaluable in understanding ESOs accounting for AONM in the
European Community.
Laser enrichment technology
The laser enrichment R&D being
undertaken by Silex Systems Limited has produced technology which it is
expected will be classified as associated technology under the Safeguards Act
in the near future. To enable the
technology to be transferred to the US for further development, as envisaged in
Silexs agreement with USEC, Australia has concluded a new treaty-level
agreement with the US, to ensure the technology is used for exclusively
peaceful purposes. This agreement was
signed in Washington on 28 October 1999 and entered into force on 24 May 2000.
Performance Assessment
Based on reporting and analysis, ASNO
concludes that all AONM is satisfactorily accounted for.
ASNOs counterparts have confirmed receipt
of all relevant exports in accordance with the requirements of the bilateral
safeguards agreements. In addition, the
IAEA provides ASNO with regular acknowledgments of ASNOs notifications of
international transfers of nuclear material to and from Australia. The IAEA has confirmed that, as at 14 June
2000 there were no outstanding unconfirmed shipments to Australia (i.e.
imports). Similarly, receipt of all of
Australias exports up to 13 January 2000 has been confirmed by the IAEAs
transit matching system.
As at 30 June 2000 ASNO had satisfactorily
accounted for AONM located overseas through, inter alia, the annual reports (made pursuant to bilateral
agreements) and other information provided by relevant bilateral treaty
partners, namely Canada, Euratom, Finland, France, Japan, ROK, Sweden,
Switzerland, the UK and the US. Reports
were not provided by Australias other bilateral partners, the Philippines,
Egypt, the Russian Federation, Mexico and New Zealand, as there was no AONM in
those countries.
Based on the fact that AONM located
overseas is satisfactorily accounted for and under IAEA safeguards, and drawing
on the IAEA's Safeguards Statement for 1999 (see page 84), ASNO concludes
that no AONM has been used for non-peaceful purposes.
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