Topical day on safeguards or the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons

• Motivation & Scope
• Programme
• Contact
• Venue

Motivation & Scope

Among the risks of nuclear energy as perceived by the public is the proliferation of nuclear weapons. Several international treaties aim at reducing the threat of nuclear arms proliferation, among which the Non Proliferation Treaty is the most well-known.

The Non Proliferation Treaty foresees inspections in the countries that signed the treaty to verify that no diversion of nuclear material takes place for the manufacture of a nuclear weapon. These so-called safeguards inspections make use of the latest scientific developments in the measurement of nuclear material.

To support the development of these inspection methods several Member States of the IAEA provide the Agency with a Support Programme. Belgium offers the IAEA a Support Programme since 1982. SCK•CEN has coordinated this programme from the start and therefore wants to celebrate its 25th anniversary with this Topical Day.

This Topical Day intends to give during the morning session an overview of the present developments in safeguards policy. In the afternoon the techniques will be discussed that the safeguards Inspectorates use at present to verify that no nuclear material is diverted from the civil nuclear fuel cycle.