Foreign Obligations and Annual Inventories

1. Foreign Obligations and Annual Inventories Jessica Norles Savannah River National Laboratory

2. Agreements for Cooperation • Section 123 of the Atomic Energy Act, as amended, authorizes Agreements for Cooperation in the Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Energy • Provides legal framework for civil nuclear cooperation with other countries • Significant transfers • Nuclear material • Major components • Equipment

3. Agreements for Cooperation (cont.) Includes nonproliferation conditions (eg. safeguards, no explosive use, physical protection, consent rights) Originally designed when the United States was a major exporter; United States now a major importer Current Agreements with 22 countries or groups of countries, IAEA, and Taiwan

4. U. S. Bilateral Agreements for Peaceful Nuclear Cooperation Pursuant to Section 123 of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as amended, Agreements in Force as of May 2010: • Argentina • Australia • Bangladesh • Brazil • Canada • China • Colombia • Egypt • European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom) • Indonesia • India • International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) • Japan • Kazakhstan • Korea, Republic of • Morocco • Norway • South Africa • Switzerland • Taiwan • Thailand • Turkey • Ukraine • United Arab Emirates

5. Negotiation and Administration of Agreements Department of State negotiates the Agreements with technical assistance of the Department of Energy (DOE) and concurrence of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) DOE negotiates and implements Administrative Arrangements to the Agreements Office of International Regimes and Agreements administers the Agreements for DOE

6. Administrative Arrangements • Negotiated with each country; different requirements • Set forth provisions and measures for the application of the Agreements (day-to-day) • Requires periodic (weekly, monthly, annually) reporting on all imports, exports, and retransfers of nuclear material subject to the Agreement

7. Administrative Arrangements (cont.) • Formal Administrative Arrangements for countries with whom there is a frequent need for consultations and significant transfers • Australia • Euratom • Canada • Switzerland • Japan (through diplomatic channels) • Others conducted on an as needed basis

8. Foreign Obligations • Items subject to an Agreement are “obligated” • Can be multiple obligations on material • Peaceful Uses Assurances are sought and granted on items subject to the Agreement • Official Government to Government notice • Facilities are asked to verify material is for peaceful uses and will be made subject to the Agreement • Assurances must be given prior to shipment

9. Obligations Tracking and Reporting • Imports • Natural uranium to conversion and enrichment plants • Enriched uranium to fuel fabrication plants • Former weapons grade uranium from Russia to USEC • Return of spent fuel from foreign research reactors • Exports • Enriched uranium • Natural uranium • Fabricated fuel assemblies

10. Obligations Tracking and Reporting (cont.) • Nuclear loss/production (eg. enrichment) • Contamination (eg. reactor vessel closure head from Japan) • Substitutions under IAEA safeguards (eg. foreign research reactor spent fuel) • Obligation Exchanges • Domestic • International (eg. UF6 Feed Component Contract)

11. Obligations Tracking and Reporting (cont.) • Other foreign obligations • People’s Republic of China • Argentina • Brazil • Chile • Russia, for former Soviet Union weapons material • Louisiana Enrichment Services (LES) • All activity reported to foreign governments originate from transaction data (741 form) submitted to NMMSS

12. Annual Inventories All Agreements require parties to produce inventories when requested Agreements with Australia, Canada, Euratom, Japan, and Switzerland require annual exchange of inventories of special nuclear material, source material, and equipment Content and timing of required reports are agreed to between the foreign agreement entity and the U.S. Government; requirements are reciprocal

13. Annual Inventories (cont.) • Prepared by NMMSS • Annual inventory reports to different countries require different levels of detail. Some to the facility by facility level; some by fuel cycle; some country as a whole • Japan: 69 page report • Euratom: 1 page report • Footnotes/explanatory notes

14. Annual Inventory Example Country as a whole

15. Reconciliation Reconciliation with foreign countries occur throughout the year on individual transactions as well as on annual inventories Match country’s shipping notifications with corresponding transaction data

16. Issues • Late/absent notifications • Large shipper-receiver difference • Different obligations and/or weights reported • Prior year adjustments • Late reporting or corrections, especially after year end close • No established common identifies to match transfers with notifications (i.e. Batch ID)

17. Quadripartite Group Initiated by DOE to periodically meet with representatives from Australia, Canada, and European Commission to discuss issues related to their respective Agreements for Cooperation Goal is to streamline nuclear material reporting and obligation tracking issues among the four Governments Document of Common Understanding and Practices

18. Pending and Future Agreements • Russia • Not yet in force • Washington (LES) • Armenia • Vietnam • Mongolia