ABSTRACT
The chief function of international safeguards is to build confidence between nations by showing that other states are keeping their non-proliferation commitments. International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safeguards and the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, even if only partially effective, are in fact one of the few successes in the depressing chronicle of the attempts to limit nuclear arms. The Board of Governors has a central role in the administration of IAEA safeguards. Among the operating problems of safeguards one of the most intractable lies in the political difficulties that many countries put in the way of designating inspectors who are citizens of an opposing military bloc or of certain other nations. As a general rule, safeguards equipment should be designed as an integral part of a reactor or any other nuclear facility and its cost, like that of safety features, should be an integral part of the price of new nuclear plants.
