Concept for the Affordable and Rapid Deployment of a WAES Capability

Undeclared nuclear fuel cycle facilities unequivocally present the greatest safeguards challenge to the International Atomic Energy Agency. INFCIRC540, Additional Protocol (AP), has a provision under Article 9 for future implementation of Wide Area Environmental Sampling (WAES). Such implementation requires approval by the IAEA Board of Governors following consultations with the IAEA and others. An assessment of potential application of WAES has been revisited on numerous occasions but has been found to be very expensive and beyond implementation by the IAEA . This challenge is compounded by a lack of cost-effective implementable approach.