ESARDA celebrates its 30th anniversary
ESARDA, the European Safeguards Research and Development Association is celebrating its 30th Anniversary, marked by its annual meeting and symposium in Seville, Spain, from 4 to 6 May 1999. ESARDA was founded to provide a forum for the exchange of ideas and information between members, in order to encourage research and development in safeguards. It now consists of 11 leading European organisations from nine European countries and the European Commission. The Association also collaborates with European plant operators, the Euratom safeguard authority, the International Atomic Energy Agency and many other research and development organisations. A control system called "safeguards" which is designed and implemented to control and monitor declared nuclear materials used for peaceful purposes has existed for several years. ESARDA has played an important role in such attempts to control nuclear materials to ensure they are not diverted from peaceful applications to more sinister uses. The Association is keenly aware that the world of safeguards is changing, and that controlling only declared nuclear materials is insufficient protection from the dangers of nuclear materials being used for anything other than peaceful purposes. ESARDA would like to be able to give assurances that no undeclared nuclear activities are taking place, requiring an urgent modification to and reorientation of existing control systems. It has therefore pushed for the uptake of a new protocol, which has now been signed by France, the United Kingdom, and 13 other European member states without nuclear weapons. Dubbed the "Additional Protocol", it includes information on, and access to, each and every nuclear programme of the country concerned. It includes information about all nuclear-related buildings, research and development, the use of modern technology, external nuclear trade, and allows outsiders the right to take environmental samples. ESARDA believes that technical dialogue and information exchange will assist an international system for nuclear safeguards. It sees the challenges ahead including the development of new concepts, methods and equipment to strengthen and streamline nuclear material control systems and to integrate new systems with existing older ones. ESARDA also predicts that modern technologies such as remote sensing, automated environmental sampling, information review and analysis, and particularly information and communications technologies, offer potential solutions to the problem.