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UN nuclear watchdog urgently needs technological backup
By Isabel Parenthoen
AFP
KARLSRUHE, Germany
Petroleumworld.com 10 10 06
The UN nuclear watchdog, hard pressed to keep pace with developments in countries such as Iran and North Korea, needs state-of-the-art technology to fulfil its task of preventing nuclear proliferation.
European and Asian research institutes have been helping The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) meet the challenge with inspection tools such as robots and high quality software.
"Our verification system is under stress," said Deputy Director-General Olli Heinonen, head of the Department of Safeguards, speaking during a scientific colloquium here a few days before North Korea claimed Monday to have tested its nuclear device.
The Vienna-based IAEA has the job of enforcing the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), whose objective is to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and technology, promote co-operation in peaceful uses of nuclear energy and further the goal of achieving nuclear disarmament and general and complete disarmament.
The treaty became operative in 1970 and 187 countries have signed it.
To fulfil its role, the IAEA has need of the very latest technology such as radioactive particle detectors, laser robot-inspectors and software programmes.
Progress in education and access to scientific technology with lower costs make nuclear weapons a more attractive option in areas with tense security situations, said Heinonen.
"The educational level is higher, they have access to material," he noted. "Many of the tools and material are there. The know-how is there too. The threshold of getting there is actually lower now. It has become more attractive an option. You still need money, but less than in the 1960s or 70s".
But the agency does not have its own scientific research facilities.
"IAEA has no research and development capabilities and has to rely on member-states," Heinonen said. "We need more support than ever before if you look at the challenges before us."
"In order to move forward, we need the support of our member states -- Europe has a key role to play."
One of these is the Institute for Transuranium Elements (ITU) here, whose task is to protect the public from risks associated with handling and storage of highly radioactive elements.
ITU, the only civilian laboratory carrying out research on actinides -- uranium, plutonium and materials derived from nuclear fission -- has become a major player in analysing samples taken by smears or "swipe samples".
Swipe samples have become "one of the most powerful techniques for AIEA inspectors," said Roland Schenkel, Director-General of the Joint European Research Centre.
Inspectors investigating production plants collect billions of particles using cotton tissues like dust cloths rubbed on shelves and recesses.
Thanks to mass spectrometry, any uranium and plutonium present can be isolated and the isotope of each element determined, enabling investigators to retrace production processes.
"You can actually retrace the history of the plant," said Schenkel.
Another ITU showpiece is a robot eqipped with a laser scanner and computer able to re-create in real time and in three-dimension the slightest detail of hundreds of kilometres of pipes and machinery in nuclear sites, and thus detect down to a millimetre any modifications to officially disclosed plans.
The robot, developed for the AIEA at the Japanese Rokkasho uranium enrichment facility, will enable inspectors to gain precious time to do their work.
A laboratory at Ispra in Italy has developed prototype software capable of finding, in 30 languages, any information anywhere on the Internet affecting nuclear proliferation or nuclear technologies.
The software covers all relevant open source information and evaluates its specific qualities and sources, providing analysts with tools complementing satellite images and data supplied by intelligence services.
Some inspectors see a new "virtual inspector," combining the robot's capacity with the software's analytical power, which could work in automated laboratories.
But no technology is any use without access to sites, says Heinonen.
"The agency's verification efforts will not be regarded as fully effective as long as its inspection rights remain uneven from country to country"
AFP 10 0218 GMT 10 06
Copyright ©2006 AFP. All Rights Reserved.
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