Tuesday 18 February 2020

The UK Support Programme (UKSP) was established in 1980 to provide technical safeguards support to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The 40th anniversary of the UKSP was celebrated at a recent reception hosted by the IAEA’s new Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi.

UK Ambassador and UK Resident Representative to IAEA, Dr David Hall (middle) collecting a certificate of appreciation for 40 years of support from the UKSP from DG Grossi (left) and DDG Aparo (right).

NNL provides technical and administrative management of the UKSP on behalf of BEIS, and also actively contributes to a number of UKSP tasks including provision of technical consultancy and training to IAEA safeguards staff.

The UKSP provides technical safeguards support to the IAEA in verifying the peaceful use of nuclear technology, across a range of activities including:

• access to facilities and experts for the training of Agency personnel
• analysis of nuclear material arising from samples taken in the course of safeguards inspections
• provision of expert staff and specific nuclear fuel cycle expertise; and open source information collection and analysis

The UK’s Resident Representative to IAEA, Dr David Hall, collected a certificate of appreciation at a commemoration that took place during January’s biennial Member State Support Programme Coordinators’ Meeting in Vienna, which was chaired by NNL’s Chris Holmes in his role as UKSP Coordinator. Dr Hall commented:

“I was delighted to celebrate 40 years of UK support to IAEA safeguards by accepting this award in Vienna recently. The event was a valuable opportunity to reflect on why safeguards work is so important in underpinning the non-proliferation objectives of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). I would like to offer a big thanks to NNL, BEIS and the whole UK team for their efforts over such a long period, and to DG Grossi for presenting the award”

NNL’s Preston Laboratory was also recently accredited as a member of the prestigious IAEA Network of Analytical Laboratories (NWAL). In the acceptance letter to the UKSP, Therese Renis Director, Division of Concepts and Planning in IAEA’s Department of Safeguards wrote:

“Few laboratories can provide the specialized analytical methods and techniques that are required by the IAEA to assure the completeness of Member State declarations. From this point forward, NNL-Preston will be an important partner in this effort”.