In June the Board decided to establish an open-ended committee to draft a model protocol additional to comprehensive type safeguards agreements.
The Committee on Strengthening the Effectiveness and Improving the Efficiency of the Safeguards System met in early July and a next meeting is planned for October. As agreed in June, the Chairman of the Board will provide a progress report on the work of the Committee. As requested, a compendium of Member State proposals for changes to the draft protocol has been prepared by the Secretariat.
The Secretariat has also distributed the complete texts of Member States' comments as Committee Working Papers.
While the Board is engaged in finalizing the Protocol, the Secretariat has been working on implementation of the Part 1 measures for strengthening safeguards - that is those measures that can be undertaken within the authority of existing safeguards agreements. A brief account of progress is contained in the General Conference document on strengthening safeguards.
Implementation of these measures is generally proving to be satisfactory but, as is apparent from the document, it would be facilitated by further co-operation of States and the timely responses from concerned States to the Secretariat's requests for information. I urge such co-operation.
Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK)
As was reported in the June 1996 meeting of the Board of Governors, the DPRK had postponed the fifth round of the technical discussions which finally took place in Pyongyang from 25 to 28 June 1996. While the discussions resulted in some progress in certain areas, the DPRK still did not accept some important technical measures.
One matter discussed was the Agency's technical paper on the preservation of information required for the Agency to verify the correctness and completeness of the DPRK's initial declaration under the Safeguards Agreement. In this connection, the DPRK made, inter alia, the following points:
- the verification of the correctness and completeness of the initial declaration of the DPRK's nuclear material is to be carried out following consultations between the IAEA and the DPRk when a significant portion of the LWR project is completed, but prior to the delivery of key, nuclear related components;
- - the DPRK is ready to discuss verification measures at facilities both subject to and not subject to the freeze. However, issues related to "other" facilities would be discussed when "the time comes".
During the discussions, the Agency team made it clear that a crucial element in the verification of the correctness and completeness of the DPRK's initial declaration is information about the "other" facilities, such as the nuclear waste sites. The Agency could not agree to the DPRK's intention to split provision of the information into two parts. Further discussions will take place during the next technical meeting which is due to take place in Vienna during the week of 23 September 1996.
I am also able to report that the canning of spent fuel from the 5 Mwe reactor is proceeding and about one third of the spent fuel rods are now canned. The operation is now expected to be completed during the first half of 1997. Until then, three to four Agency inspectors will need to be stationed in the Nyongbyon area to cover all the required activities, including inspections at locations outside facilities at different areas in the country. In the light of increased technical activities, the DPRK has agreed to take measures necessary to improve communications from the DPRK and has also agreed to accept the designation of nine more Agency inspectors.
Illicit Trafficking
Before turning to the next item on the Agenda , I should note that at the end of August, a second meeting of a group of international organizations was held in Vienna to discuss ways of assisting States in combatting the illicit cross-border movement of nuclear materials and other radioactive sources. The meeting indicated general satisfaction with the Agency's activities in the area: specifically the development of technical guidance, the provision of training and the operation of the Agency's Illicit Trafficking Database. The meeting agreed that States should be urged to consider possible funding strategies to support programmes in this area. A strong interest was also expressed in developing better mechanisms for co-operation among the various organizations, including more timely exchange of information and the joint development of new programmes.