Selected Publications On Nuclear Raw Materials

This handbook is a practical aid to legislative drafting that brings together, for the first time, model texts of provisions covering all aspects of nuclear law in a consolidated form. Organized along the same lines as the Handbook on Nuclear Law, published by the IAEA in 2003, and containing updated material on new legal developments, this publication represents an important companion resource for the development of new or revised nuclear legislation, as well as for instruction in the fundamentals of nuclear law. It will be particularly useful for those Member States embarking on new or expanding existing nuclear programmes.

This publication was prepared under the IAEA's programme for Safety Standards and complements other Safety Guides that deal with all safety considerations in site evaluation regarding the effects of external events and population distribution. It supplements and provides recommendations on meeting the requirements for nuclear installations established in the Safety Requirements publication on Site Evaluation for Nuclear Installations (IAEA Safety Standards Series No. NS-R-3) in terms of the safety aspects to be considered during the stages of the selection process of a site for a nuclear installation.

This publication provides detailed guidance with regard to the identification of vital areas at nuclear facilities. It presents a structured approach to identifying those areas that contain equipment, systems and components to be protected against sabotage. The process for selection of a specific set of vital areas to be protected is based on consideration of the potential radiological consequences of sabotage, and on the design, operational and safety features of a nuclear facility. The method builds upon safety analysis to develop logic models for sabotage scenarios that could cause unacceptable radiological consequences. The sabotage actions represented in the logic models are linked to the areas from which they can be accomplished. The logic models are then analysed to determine areas that should be protected to prevent these unacceptable radiological consequences. The publication is part of a set of supporting publications in the IAEA Nuclear Security Series with the aim of assisting States in the design, implementation and evaluation of their physical protection systems for nuclear material and nuclear facilities.

The Convention on the Physical Protection of Nuclear Material was signed at Vienna and at New York on 3 March 1980. The Convention is the only international legally binding undertaking in the area of physical protection of nuclear material. It establishes measures related to the prevention, detection and punishment of offenses relating to nuclear material. A Diplomatic Conference in July 2005 was convened to amend the Convention and strengthen its provisions. The amended Convention makes it legally binding for States Parties to protect nuclear facilities and material in peaceful domestic use, storage as well as transport. It also provides for expanded cooperation between and among States regarding rapid measures to locate and recover stolen or smuggled nuclear material, mitigate any radiological consequences of sabotage, and prevent and combat related offences. The amendments will take effect once they have been ratified by two-thirds of the States Parties of the Convention.

Transforming the energy system is at the core of the dedicated sustainable development goal on energy within the new United Nations development agenda. This publication explores the possible contribution of nuclear energy to addressing the issues of sustainable development through a large selection of indicators. It reviews the characteristics of nuclear power in comparison with alternative sources of electricity supply, according to economic, social and environmental pillars of sustainability. The findings summarized in this publication will help the reader to consider, or reconsider, the contribution that can be made by the development and operation of nuclear power plants in contributing to more sustainable energy systems.