THE EURATOM REGIONAL SAFEGUARDS SYSTEM

摘要

The Treaty founding the European Atomic Energy Community (EURATOM) provides for a system of nuclear material safeguards which is implemented by the European Commission (EC) in all the 27 Member States of the European Union (EU). The EURATOM Treaty is part of the system of European law and is binding and directly applicable in all Member States. EURATOM safeguards are applied on nuclear material in all peaceful activities in all the nuclear and non-nuclear weapon Member States of the EU. The Treaty also requires the EC to make sure that any particular safeguarding obligations assumed by the Community under an agreement concluded with a third State or an international organisation are complied with. In this respect the Community has concluded cooperation agreements with a number of third countries and three verification agreements with the IAEA. For the Commission to be in a position to carry out these responsibilities, it was given wide ranging powers. It has developed and maintains its own R&D activities for supporting safeguards, and actively co-operates with many research organisations belonging to other countries and the IAEA. The recent developments in IAEA safeguards have paved the way for an enhanced cooperation between the IAEA and regional safeguards systems. In this context the EURATOM safeguards system is the best example of an effective combination of a strong juridical and institutional basis together with many decades of experience in the implementation of safeguards in the entirety of the nuclear fuel cycle. The paper describes the different elements of the EURATOM safeguards systems as an example for a comprehensive system of safeguards at regional or state level. It also illustrates different possibilities for the IAEA to make better use of the EURATOM safeguards system as well as the possible cooperation between the EC and future or existing regional safeguards systems which could use EURATOM as a model for their own region.