What is the Future of IAEA Verification?
IAEA’s experience and expertise in the application of safeguards might be employed in a number of important areas in the near future. One area is further development of verification arrangements under regional nuclear weapon-free zone treaties. Such treaties are already in place in Latin America, Africa, Southeast Asia and in the South Pacific. Negotiations might lead to other regional treaties in South Asia, the Middle East and on the Korean peninsula. The requirements of such agreements will vary according to the needs of the region, and a range of models and options exist. One option involves using joint inspection teams of IAEA inspectors and national inspectors from the zone, thus providing added confidence to those States that no undeclared activities relating to the development of nuclear weapons were being undertaken by other States in the region. Second, steps are underway to establish – in the United States and Russia – an international verification of fissile material remove
