Legal instruments of nuclear safeguards establisheds by the agreement for the exclusively peaceful use of nuclear energy between Brazil and Argentina

Abstract

The present paper seeks to present the nuclear safeguards system established by the Agreement for the Exclusively Peaceful Use of Nuclear Energy, celebrated between Brazil and Argentina in 1991 and that is until today the basis of the nuclear safeguards system in Brazil. The nuclear safeguards consist in procedures performed in nuclear facilities (reactors, enrichment plants, etc.) of certain state for the accounting and controlol of nuclear materials used by them. The safeguards are the most important mechanism so that not occur the proliferation of nuclear weapons, since the technology used in civil nuclear facilities is the same technology needed for the manufacture of weapons of mass destruction. This paper intends to show how the mutual bilateral safeguards are applied by the Brazilian-Argentine Agency for Accounting and Control of Nuclear Materials, the first bilateral international organization created by Brazil and Argentina through the Agreement for the Exclusively Peaceful Use of Nuclear Energy. To the implementation of the mechanisms of accountancy and control of nuclear materials ABACC applies the Common System of Accounting and Control of Nuclear Materials. The safeguards of the Bilateral Agreement of 1991 are essentially important for Brazil to develop its own nuclear industry and technology peacefully and autonomously.