The IAEA's Department of Safeguards has embarked on an evolutionary process to more fully develop and apply the State-Level Concept (SLC) for safeguards implementation. This concept makes use of all safeguards-relevant information available in order to focus and prioritize its safeguards activities. Key components of the SLC are the development of a State-level Approach (SLA) and Annual Implementation Plan (AIP), which consists of analysing acquisition paths, establishing and prioritizing technical objectives, and identifying applicable safeguards measures. The Next Generation Safeguard Initiative of the National Nuclear Security Administration, Office of Nonproliferation and International Security, has supported Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in the development and assessment of options for SLA and AIP development. This paper describes LANL's multi-step model process for SLA/AIP development. The paper begins with an explanation of how acquisition paths can be enumerated and visualized using a directed graph. In the LANL process, these paths are then ranked according to an assessment of their inherent attractiveness followed by a prioritization step driven by a capability assessment of the State and other safeguards relevant information. Paths are then assigned performance targets according to their priority which influences the focus and intensity of safeguards effort. Annual technical objectives are determined to satisfy these performance targets, and the possibility of utilizing random path selection is explored. Researchers at Forschungszentrum Jiilich (FZJ) have also been exploring SLA development methods and a hypothetical State, created in collaboration with FZJ, is defined and used in examples for illustrative purposes. Differences in the LANL and FZJ approaches are also identified in the paper.
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