IAEA needs to enhance authority, face retirement crunch: US audit watchdog

November 7, 2005
Yahoo News
Original Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20051108/pl_afp/usiaeagaocongress_051108001252

The International Atomic Energy Agency has strengthened its watch over nuclear nonproliferation, but must address weaknesses that limit its ability to implement tougher safeguards, the US General Accountability Office said.
The GAO said in a report to Congress that the IAEA faces challenges that limit its ability to use enhanced methods of investigation, such as a lack of agreements with some countries for new authority to search for clandestine nuclear activities.
The agency also faces an employee crunch, with a large number of inspectors and other experts expected to retire in the next five years, it said.
The report coincided with the opening of an international nonproliferation conference here. IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei, winner of the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize, was the keynote speaker at the nongovernmental event, sponsored by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a think tank in Washington.
The GAO noted that the IAEA had begun to develop the capability to independently evaluate all aspects of a country's nuclear activities rather than only verifying the peaceful use of a country's declared nuclear material.
However, despite successes in uncovering some countries' undeclared nuclear activities, safeguards experts cautioned that a determined country can still conceal a nuclear weapons program, the report warned.
The Agency cannot provide member states assurance that its activities are detecting clandestine nuclear weapons programs or helping secure nuclear and radioactive materials, the GAO concluded.
In an appendix to the report, the US State Department disagreed with that finding, saying it was inconsistent with the body of the GAO report which discusses the IAEA's success in uncovering undeclared nuclear activities in Iran and Egypt.
We believe the Agency does provide meaningful assurances that its activities in both safeguards and nuclear material security are contributing to US and global security, the State Department said.
But the State Department said it generally agrees with the GAO's findings and the thrust of its conclusions and recommendations.
Spurred by the 1991 discovery of Iraq's clandestine nuclear weapons program, the United Nations-linked nuclear watchdog began to gather additional information about states' nuclear and nuclear-related activities.
The GAO made several recommendations to Congress, including that the secretary of state, working with the IAEA and its member states, consider:
- eliminating or at least reducing the number of agreements which limit the IAEA's authority to inspect countries with small quantities of nuclear material;
- establishing clear, improved measures to better evaluate the effectiveness of its activities; and
- reform human resources practices that impede ability to recruit and retain critical staff, warning of a looming human capital crisis resulting form the upcoming retirement of senior staff and a shrinking pool of nuclear experts.
The report on the IAEA was based on a study from October 2004 to August 2005. Dated October 7, it was released to the public Monday.