UN's Nuclear Watchdog in Midst of 'Largest Ever' Project
![A new Nuclear Material Laboratory will be established in Seibersdorf, Austria, replacing the existing laboratory that began operation in 1976.](https://d.medicaldaily.com/en/full/222634/new-nuclear-material-laboratory-will-established-seibersdorf-austria-replacing-existing.jpg?w=670&f=d6c6d332a102c04d7c8a62fafc6206ec)
United Nation’s nuclear safety organization on Thursday highlighted an ongoing multi-phase project designed to modernize the organizations’ safeguards investigative capabilities to meet verification challenges in the next 30 years.
The International Atomic Energy Agency said that this project is the “largest ever undertaken” by the agency, and it includes predicting and defining analytical and infrastructure requirements, laboratory designs, site infrastructure and design, security improvements, as well as completing construction within budget without interfering with other ongoing operations.
"The role played by the IAEA's Analytical Laboratories in safeguarding nuclear material around the world is vital in upholding the integrity of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty," Yukiya Amano, the director general of IAEA said in a statement.
Establishing a new Nuclear Material Laboratory in Seibersdorf, Austria is a major component of the new project. The new laboratory will replace the existing NML that began operation more than 30 years ago.
The mission of the NML has been to evaluate and report results from nuclear material accountancy verification samples that include, uranium, plutonium, spent fuel and high activity liquid waste materials.
The new establishment will allow research to catch up to the modern era and allow experts to inspect nuclear samples collected outside the declared area of safeguard facilities and other inspection samples that may require special handling and analytical processing within the NML.
The lab is expected to be completed in 2014, and would "provide the IAEA with a modern and expandable capability for nuclear sample analyses, collected from all points along the nuclear fuel cycle," Amano said in a statement.
The new building will also allow collaboration of all nuclear analytical activities which are currently dispersed among a number of laboratories at Seibersdorf.
Herman Nackaerts, the deputy director general for Safeguards reported to Member State representatives that the construction on the new establishment commenced last month.