Participation of ABACC in the International Safeguards Symposium: Reflecting on the Past and Anticipating the Future – October 31 to November 4, 2022 - Vienna - Austria
The Safeguards Symposium, organized by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) every four years, is a highly relevant event for the nuclear safeguards and non-proliferation community that brings together organizations, specialists and other stakeholders to present and discuss the state of the art and future of technologies, techniques, methods, criteria for its effective application. It is also a fruitful forum to share advances in international and regional cooperation on safeguards and progress in its implementation, and to exchange experiences and knowledge among the participants.
The event was attended by more than 100 countries, the regional safeguards bodies, ABACC and EURATOM, institutions, professional associations such as ESARDA and INMM, networks such as APSN and AFCONE, among others.
ABACC had an active presence and contribution to the Symposium, presenting various technical works of its own and co-authored with EURATOM and Argentina, as follows:
- ABACC and EURATOM: A Reflection fo the Past and Future Cooperation between Regional Safeguards Organizations
- Safeguards Implementation by ABACC during the Covid-19 Pandemic
- Destructive Analysis of Nuclear Materials at ABACC: Current Status and Future Steps
- Implementation of a Graphical Data Analysis and Review Software for State of Health (SoH) Remotely transmitted Data from Containment and Surveillance Safeguards Systems Applied to Nuclear Power Reactors in Brazil and Argentina
- Early Conception of An Unattended Monitoring System for Spent Fuel Transfers to Dry Storage at Atucha 1 Nuclear Power Plant
ABACC also supported the participation of the Nuclear Regulatory Authority of Argentina (ARN) and the National Atomic Energy Commission of Brazil (CNEN), enabling a broad participation.
Following the presentation of the paper “ABACC and EURATOM: A reflection on past and future cooperation between regional safeguards organizations“, ABACC shared the milestones of its work in its first 30 years of existence, highlighting in particular the role of cooperation and coordination with the IAEA on the application of safeguards, stating that during the restrictions imposed due to the Covid-19 pandemic, ABACC continued to comply with its inspection and verification plan of the exclusively peaceful use of nuclear energy in both countries under ABACC´s safeguards. The support of the Argentine and Brazilian authorities was essential to facilitate the fulfillment of the mission of ABACC, as well as the cooperation between ABACC and the IAEA.