IAEA Statements of Conclusions of Inspections in Australia.
During 2000-01 the IAEA carried out inspections in two of
Australias five Material Balance Areas (MBAs): AS-A and AS-C. The reduction in routine inventory
verification was due to the introduction of integrated safeguardsin Australia.
However, this does not mean that the IAEA is
monitoring Australia less, as the Agency now carries out a range of other
activities, such as short notice inspections, complementary accessesand increased data
collection and analysis.
The IAEA provides statements of conclusions of inspections
under Article 91(b) of Australias NPT Safeguards Agreement. At the time of writing this Report the 91(b)
statements for the annual inventory verifications of AS-A and AS-C, conducted
in March 2001, had not been received from the IAEA. However, previous Article 91(b) statements have stated the
following conclusions (Activity 3 applies only to MBAs AS-A and AS-D) and ASNO
anticipates this years statement will be similar.
|
Verification Activity |
Conclusion |
|
|---|---|---|
|
(1) |
Examination of records |
The records satisfied the Agency requirements. |
|
(2) |
Examination of Reports to the Agency |
The reports satisfied the Agency requirements. |
|
(3) |
Application of Containment and Surveillance Measures |
The application of containment and surveillance measures adequately |
|
(4) |
Verification of Physical Inventory |
The physical inventory declared by the operator was verified and the |
The
material unaccounted for (MUF)
declared for the year consisted of small quantities of depleted, natural and
enriched uranium all in AS-C.
Explanatory note on MBA AS-E
MBA
AS-E covers all locations in Australia, except Lucas Heights, where
safeguardable nuclear material is present.
No
IAEA statement under Article 91(b) of Australias NPT Safeguards Agreement has
been provided for this MBA since the IAEA has not inspected the nuclear material
located there. This is because the
quantities are too small to be of proliferation significance and in most cases
have been exempted from active safeguards or have had safeguards terminated in
accordance with the Agreement (Articles 36, 37, 38 and 39 of the Agreement
refer).