2
2
2
2
According to the IAEA, nuclear security refers to measures taken for ‘the prevention and detection of, and response to, theft, sabotage, unauthorized access, illegal transfer or other malicious acts involving nuclear material, other radioactive substances or their associated facilities’.
In contrast, nuclear safety is ‘[t]he achievement of proper operating conditions, prevention of accidents and mitigation of accident consequences, resulting in protection of workers, the public and the environment from undue radiation risks’.
Nuclear safety and nuclear security both seek to limit nuclear and radiological risks. In each case, in pursuit of proportionate and affordable measures, risk-based approaches may be applied to safety and security operations. Nonetheless, the IAEA notes that between the two fields, ‘nuclear security places additional emphasis on deliberate acts that are intended to cause harm.’
The difference also manifests in the common principles – the ‘questioning attitudes, rigorous and prudent approaches, and effective and open two-way communications’ – of the two fields. Here, the IAEA’s ‘Nuclear Security Culture’ guide notes that, ‘Because security deals with deliberate acts, security culture requires different attitudes and behaviour, such as confidentiality of information and efforts to deter malicious acts, as compared with safety culture.’
Despite broad commonality, tensions may arise between nuclear safety and nuclear security practices in areas such as information sharing: safety advocates may seek to disseminate information to prevent inadvertent mistakes, while security advocates may consider release of certain information to be a security risk.
Rather than dealing with nuclear and radiological risks, nuclear safeguards are focused on verification measures. The IAEA defines these as, ‘a set of technical measures applied by the IAEA on nuclear material and activities, through which the Agency seeks to independently verify that nuclear facilities are not misused and nuclear material not diverted from peaceful uses.”
Nuclear safeguards are primarily a tool to prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons, technology and expertise; and are generally applied over existing working practices. Arguably, effective nuclear security culture may also help with the awareness and prevention of the theft and spread of nuclear and radiological materials and technologies, as well as associated intangible assets.
Further Reading:
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), IAEA Safety Glossary: 2018 Edition, Vienna, 2019
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Basics of IAEA Safeguards, website of the IAEA
