ABSTRACT
Several developments outside the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) are shown to have had an impact on IAEA safeguards. The most important have been two far-reaching attempts to control nuclear exports, the London or Suppliers’ Guidelines of 1977 and the United States Nuclear Non-Proliferation Act (NNPA) of 1978 as well as international reaction to the Guidelines and the policies inspiring the NNPA. In 1977 President Carter took the initiative of launching a full-scale International Fuel Cycle Evaluation (INFCE). The intention was in part to calm the concern raised by his Administration’s nuclear policies but it was also hoped that INFCE would reveal a less ‘proliferation-prone’ fuel cycle than that which the nuclear energy industry had planned since the 1950s. ‘Physical protection’ is the term used to describe the measures that governments take to protect nuclear plants and materials against criminal acts: sabotage, hijacking, terrorist attack, forcible seizure or theft.
