VZCZCXYZ0002
OO RUEHWEB

DE RUEHUNV #0373/01 2171005
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 051005Z AUG 09
FM USMISSION UNVIE VIENNA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 9916
RHEBAAA/DOE WASHDC IMMEDIATE
INFO RUEHLO/AMEMBASSY LONDON PRIORITY 1270
RUEHFR/AMEMBASSY PARIS PRIORITY 1128
RUEHKO/AMEMBASSY TOKYO PRIORITY 0791
RUEHVI/AMEMBASSY VIENNA PRIORITY 1463

UNCLAS UNVIE VIENNA 000373 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
IO/T, ISN/MNSA COCKERHAM, IO/UNP, ISN CTR CURRY; NA-243 
GOOREVICH; NA-241 SIEMON, O'CONNOR, LAMONTAGNE; AFTAC FOR 
CHARLES BRENNAN 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: AORC KNNP IAEA ENRG TRGY
SUBJECT: IAEA/SAFEGUARDS ANALYTICAL LABORATORY: PROGRESS IN 
IAEA PROJECTS TO UPGRADE AGENCY SAMPLE ANALYSIS 
 
REF: UNVIE 00365 
 
------- 
Summary 
------- 
 
 
¶1.  (SBU) IAEA and "Friends of SAL" met July 29-30 to provide 
Member States with an update on the Agency's Safeguards 
Analytical Laboratory (SAL) planning and needs.  (Note: 
Friends of SAL is an informal group of Member States that 
closely follow the Secretariat's efforts to ensure a highly 
capable Safeguards Analytical Laboratory.)  U.S. consultant 
Dave Swindle served as moderator for the meeting.  During the 
opening session, Austria announced the conclusion of an 
agreement to allow the IAEA to use up to 100,000 square 
meters of land adjacent to the IAEA's laboratories in 
Seibersdorf, Austria.  The IAEA plans to build the clean lab 
extension (CLE) and new nuclear materials lab (NML) on this 
site.  Japan also announced a new donation to the SAL project 
of up to 2 million Euros for the design of the NML, in 
addition to the 4.5 million Euros to purchase a large 
geometry secondary ion mass spectrometer (LG-SIMS) Japan had 
already donated.  The U.S. delegation reiterated the offer to 
donate 5.5 million USD in extrabudgetary funds to take 
forward the NML project.  The penultimate session of the 
Workshop laid the groundwork for future engagement with key 
Member States on ensuring both appropriate funding for SAL, 
as well as continuing to hold the Secretariat's feet to the 
fire to take the SAL project forward according to a 
well-defined mission statement and pursuant to sound project 
management. 
 
¶2.  (SBU) The Secretariat described its planned 
organizational restructuring, highlighted by the proposed 
creation of an Analytical Services Division in the Department 
of Safeguards.  The proposal, which would consolidate SAL 
(currently in the Department of Nuclear Applications) and the 
Safeguards evaluation and planning sections into a new 
Safeguards Analytical Services Division under Olli Heinonen, 
has been put before the Director General for a final 
decision.  (We are told that the DG has already committed 
privately to the move.)  The Agency also described the steps 
it is taking towards a more robust network of analytic labs 
(NWAL); a necessary contingency should the NML at SAL ever be 
forced to be out of commission for any reason.  Participants 
agreed to hold an update meeting by the end of 2009 to 
discuss the CLE and NML.  End Summary. 
 
--------------------- 
Towards a CLE and NML 
--------------------- 
 
¶3.  (SBU) Representatives from Australia, Austria, Canada, 
China, Czech Republic, European Commission, France, Germany, 
Hungary, Malaysia, Republic of Korea, Russia, South Africa, 
Switzerland, United Kingdom, and United States attended the 
two day workshop.  Austrian Ambassador Ernst-Peter Brezovszky 
of the Federal Ministry for European and International 
Affairs announced at the opening of the meeting that IAEA and 
Austria had signed an agreement providing new space for the 
CLE and NML at the IAEA labs in Seibersdorf, Austria.  The 
agreement, signed July 27, will make 60,000 square meters of 
land available immediately, with the option for an additional 
40,000 square meters later, if needed.  The land will be 
leased from Austria at one Euro per year for 99 years. 
 
¶4.  (SBU) The IAEA's phased approach for upgrading SAL begins 
with the purchase and installation of a large-geometry SIMS 
(previously identified as an Ultra-High-Sensitivity SIMS) and 
an extension to SAL's Clean Lab to house the instrument. 
Japan has provided 4.5 million Euros to purchase the 
instrument and its associated lab equipment.  Phase 2 is the 
construction of a new NML.  Japan has offered "up to 2 
million Euros" for the design of the NML.  In the penultimate 
session of the Workshop, which involved Member States only 
and included a discussion of funding needs for SAL, the U.S. 
del reiterated an offer to provide 5.5 million USD for the 
NML, assuming the ongoing budget negotiations produced 
agreement on a 5.4 percent increase (see Reftel).  During the 
workshop many states stressed the importance of maintaining 
operations at the NML until the design and construction of 
the new NML can be completed. 
 
---------------- 
Support for NWAL 
---------------- 
 
¶5.  (SBU) IAEA appears finally to be taking a serious look at 
increasing the capabilities of NWAL (the Network of 
Analytical Laboratories).  Safeguards is working with 
partners in Belgium, Brazil, China, Czech Republic, France, 
Netherlands, Russia, United Kingdom, and United States 
(through DOE) to establish NWAL laboratories for nuclear 
materials analysis.  The agency is also trying to increase 
its environmental sample capacity by reaching out to 
potential partner laboratories in Brazil, China, Hungary, and 
Republic of Korea.  Member States agreed that enlarging NWAL 
capacity was a necessary step in ensuring sustained 
safeguards verification activities, in addition to the 
improvements to the Safeguards laboratories at Seibersdorf. 
 
--------------------------- 
Reorganization in the Works 
--------------------------- 
 
¶6.  (SBU) The agency presented its plan for the formation of 
a Division of Analytical Services in the Department of 
Safeguards (SGAS). SAL would move from its present position 
in Department of Nuclear Applications, Division of Agency's 
Laboratories (NAAL) to this new division. The remainder of 
NAAL would be reorganized into other NA divisions.  The 
proposal has been forwarded to the Director General and SGAS 
would begin on January 1, 2010.  Member States strongly 
supported the principle that the reorganization itself be 
cost-neutral and not require any additional staff. 
 
--------------------------------------------- 
Member States Respond, Discuss Funding Status 
--------------------------------------------- 
 
¶7.  (SBU) The final two sessions of the workshop consisted 
first of a members-only meeting to consult on what advice and 
reflections the Member States should convey to the 
Secretariat, and secondly of a session at which an informal 
summary of member states' views was presented to the 
Secretariat by the French Chair of Friends of SAL.  The 
summary was passed as a non-paper to the Secretariat and is 
printed in full in para 9 below. 
 
---------- 
Next Steps 
---------- 
 
¶8.  (SBU) All agreed that a follow-up meeting within 6 months 
would be helpful to both the Secretariat and Member States. 
DDG Safeguards Olli Heinonen set early December as a target 
date for the meeting. UNVIE will work with the Secretariat to 
ensure that by December the Agency will clearly identify the 
mission of the laboratories, and have more details on its NML 
plans.  The provision of U.S. consultant Dave Swindle to the 
Secretariat to help formulate and drive forward this project 
is essential.  Meeting participants repeatedly noted that 
replacing the NML will be the most complex project ever 
undertaken by the IAEA Secretariat.  While the workshop 
showed that the Agency is beginning to move in the right 
direction on appropriate planning, the success of this 
project will require sustained and long-term engagement with 
the Secretariat to keep the project within appropriate bounds 
and pursuant to sound project management.  For example, it is 
only as a result of pressure from UNVIE, the U.S. consultant, 
and other Member States that IAEA finally has begun to 
formulate a 5-year plan describing what maintenance, etc., 
must be done so that the current NML can be counted upon to 
remain operational until the new NML is in place.  Finally, 
the bulk of USD 20 million plus funding for the new NML, 
which will need to be available in 2011, has yet to be 
identified.  Mission looks forward to working closely with 
Washington to strike the right balance between regular budget 
funding, additional U.S. extrabudgetary funding, and such 
additional funding from other Member States. 
 
¶9.  (SBU) BEGIN TEXT OF FRIENDS OF SAL NON-PAPER 
 
Workshop on SAL mission and future, July 29-30, Vienna 
Informal chair summary of the discussions among Member States 
/ Friends of SAL 
 
NB: this non paper is not intended to be comprehensive and 
formally agreed but to reflect some common understandings 
among participants for the future of the labs and for the 
NWAL, and identify options for Member States support to 
achieve them. 
 
I- Summary of understandings from the group - Advice 
/Recommendations. 
 
- the group thanks the DDG SG and all Secretariat staff for 
their work in setting up this WS 
- the WS was a good initiative, timely and informative 
- we recognized that state of the art NWAL inc. SAL as 
in-house capacity is at the heart of credible SG conclusions 
 
Management 
- support for a new division for analytical services was 
expressed as providing many benefits 
(single PoC for SG analysts and operations, management of SAL 
by the only customer, increase efficiency and maintain 
Agency's expertise for the long term inc. staffing) 
- recognize that the reorganisation itself should be cost 
neutral and will not require additional staff for the purpose 
of the transition 
- there is a need for a long term strategy for SAL, as part 
of the SG LTS, starting from a clear statement of its mission 
and analytical objectives, and providing the corresponding 
equipment plan and HR strategy (how to recruit and retain 
people) 
 
Large Geometry-SIMS and CLE 
- purchase of LG-SIMS is made possible thanks to the 
government of Japan 
- the group welcomes this decision as it will provide 
in-house capability for the most sensitive particle analysis 
of ES 
- we recommend to proceed as quickly as possible with the CLE 
as funds are from 2009 RB 
 
Nuclear Material Lab 
- different options based on external audit have been 
discussed 
- decision taken by ECAS to go for a new SAL CLE&NML on a 
phased approach (option 3) was recognized as optimizing the 
Agency's long term needs and taking into account practical 
consideration of resources: it's the good choice 
- 60 to 100 000 m2 of land have been offered by the 
government of Austria in the course of the workshop making 
this option possible 
- security of the site is a key issue and is still to be 
funded (fences, access point) 
- need to maintain current capability until long term 
solution is available (a detailed plan for this should be 
prepared) 
 
NWAL 
- need for enlarging the NWAL capacity has been demonstrated 
during the WS 
- the group welcomed initiatives or efforts to expand their 
offer coming from different countries inc. Brazil, China, 
Czech Republic, Hungary, Republic of Korea and Malaysia but 
recognizing that additional costs for the Agency and MS are 
associated with this expansion 
- greater involvement of qualified laboratories in developing 
countries have been recognized to be very valuable 
- the Secretariat should also look at the more timely 
solutions within the NWAL 
- for the NM NWAL, a quick risk analysis suggests to address 
transportation, cost and efficiency on an urgent basis 
 
Future needs 
- there will be potential future needs for additional 
analytical methods for the current missions of the Department 
of SG (impurities, morphology, age determination, chemical 
composition). 
- we group agreed that SAL has a safeguards only mandate and 
there should be no confusion between developing new methods 
for inspection samples and nuclear forensics, which is a 
nuclear security related concept with a specific legal 
meaning related to prosecution 
- new missions may arrive (i.e. FMCT) and therefore 
flexibility/modularity will be needed in the conception phases 
 
Project management considerations 
- we recognized that it will be the most ambitious and non 
standard project for the Agency 
- there is a need for a strong project management team 
- ECAS individual tasks may need to be re-scoped as projects 
(CLE, NML, NWAL) 
- there is also a need for a timely site management plan for 
SAL (land) 
- need to adapt the procurement processes to accommodate the 
unusual nature of the project in particular buildings 
construction steps 
- the proposed timeline (CLE completed by end 2010, NML by 
2013) was considered as an important goal to meet 
 
II- Options for support by Member States. 
 
As analytical services are a core function of the SG, 
primarily funding should be considered through the regular 
budget. Supplementary extra-budgetary contributions 
 
Table of secured or expected contributions. 
 
Member State / Commitment / Purpose 
Japan   / 4.5 M euros / Purchase LG-SIMS 
Austria / Up to 100 000 m2 land / CLE NML 
RoK     / 300 000 USD / ECAS 
Japan   / Up to 2 M euros / NML design 
U.S.    / (pending outcome of regular budget negotiation) 5.4 
M USD 
 
- some MS indicated continued efforts from their governments 
to identify funding opportunities 
- expectation by some EU countries to work with their 
partners to identify potential options in the framework of 
the EC instruments 
In-kind assistance 
- MSSP are expected to focus and coordinate their assistance 
for SAL, in particular on actions to fill the gap and secure 
an emergency capability before the new NM lab is available 
- 2010 R&D programme is expected to reflect needs for new 
analytical methods, NWAL expansion and needs for CRMs 
- some MS are ready to consider providing future 
CFE/consultants when needs will be identified (inc. project 
management, review of equipment plans and HR strategy) 
 
III- Future meeting. 
- the group would appreciate to reconvene for similar 
discussions with the Agency before the end of 2009 to keep 
everybody engaged and receive update in key areas (SAL's 
missions statement, description of project management, a five 
year plan to maintain the current lab) 
 
END TEXT OF NON-PAPER 
PYATT