Summary
A key mission of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is promoting the peaceful uses of nuclear energy through its Technical Cooperation (TC) program, which provides equipment, training, fellowships, and other services to its member states. The United States provides approximately 25 percent of the TC program's annual budget. This report addresses the (1) extent to which the United States and IAEA have policies limiting member states' participation in the TC program on the basis of nuclear proliferation and related concerns; (2) extent to which the United States and IAEA evaluate and monitor TC projects for proliferation concerns; and (3) any limitations and challenges in IAEA's management of the TC program. To address these issues, GAO interviewed relevant officials at the Departments of State (State) and Energy (DOE) and IAEA; analyzed IAEA, DOE, and national laboratory data; and assessed State and IAEA policies toward the TC program.
Neither State nor IAEA seeks to systematically limit TC assistance to countries the United States has designated as state sponsors of terrorism--Cuba, Iran, Sudan, and Syria--even though under U.S. law these countries are subject to sanctions. Together, these four countries received more than $55 million in TC assistance from 1997 through 2007. In addition, TC funding has been provided to states that are not party to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT)--India, Israel, and Pakistan--and neither the United States nor IAEA has sought to exclude these countriesfrom participating in the TC program. Finally, IAEA member statesare not required to complete comprehensive safeguards or additional protocol agreements with IAEA--which allow IAEA to monitor declared nuclear activities and detect clandestine nuclear programs--to be eligible for TC assistance, even though U.S. and IAEA officials have stressed the need for all countries to bring such arrangements into force as soon as possible. The proliferation concerns associated with the TC program are difficult for the United States to fully identify, assess, and resolve for several reasons. While State has implemented an interagency process to review proposed TC projects for proliferation risks, the effectiveness of these reviews is limited because IAEA does not provide the United States with sufficient or timely information on TC proposals. Of the 1,565 TC proposals reviewed by DOE and the U.S. national laboratories for possible proliferation risks from 1998 through 2006, information for 1,519 proposals, or 97 percent, consisted of only project titles. IAEA faces several limitations and challenges in effectively managing the TC program. First, the TC program's impact in meeting development and other needs of member states is unclear because IAEA has not updated and revised the program's performance metrics since 2002. Second, the TC program is limited by financial constraints, including the failure of many member states to pay their full share of support to the program's Technical Cooperation Fund (TCF). In 2007, the TCF experienced a shortfall of $3.5 million, or 4 percent, of the $80 million total target budget, because 62 member states did not pay their full expected contributions, including 47 states that made no payment at all. Furthermore, IAEA has not developed a policy for determining when countries should be graduated from receiving TC assistance, including those defined by the UN as high-income countries. Finally, the TC program's long-term viability is uncertain because of limitations in IAEA efforts to track how project results are sustained and because of shortcomings in strategies to develop new TC program partners and donors.
Recommendations
Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.
Director:
Team:
Phone:
Eugene E. Aloise
Government Accountability Office: Natural Resources and Environment
(202) 512-6870
Matters for Congressional Consideration
Recommendation: If Congress wishes to make known that the United States does not support IAEA's policy of permitting TC projects in countries that State has designated as state sponsors of terrorism, or other countries where other concerns persist, it may wish to explicitly require--as it currently does with Cuba and has done in the past with Iran, Libya, and the Territories Under the Jurisdiction of the Palestinian Authority--that State withhold a proportionate share of the U.S. voluntary contribution to the TC program that is equivalent to the amounts of TCF funding that would otherwise be made available to these countries. Alternatively, if Congress wishes to obtain additional information before making this decision, it may wish to require State to report to Congress explaining its rationale for not withholding a proportionate share of the U.S. contribution to the TCF for U.S.-designated state sponsors of terrorism.
Status: In process
Comments: When we determine what steps the Congress has taken, we will provide updated information.
Recommendations for Executive Action
Recommendation: To address the range of proliferation and management concerns related to the TC program, the Secretary of State, working with IAEA and member states through the Board of Governors, should explore establishing a formal mechanism to facilitate greater and more timely information sharing on TC project proposals between IAEA and the United States and other countries--including detailed information on the TC proposals themselves, as well as the results of IAEA's internal proliferation reviews of the proposals--so that proliferation and other concerns can be identified and addressed early in the project development cycle.
Agency Affected: Department of State
Status: In process
Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
Recommendation: To address the range of proliferation and management concerns related to the TC program, the Secretary of State, working with IAEA and member states through the Board of Governors, should explore promoting a regular and systematic process for obtaining, retaining, and updating information on prior TC project fellows to better track where and how the knowledge and expertise they have obtained is being applied.
Agency Affected: Department of State
Status: In process
Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
Recommendation: To address the range of proliferation and management concerns related to the TC program, the Secretary of State, working with IAEA and member states through the Board of Governors, should explore strengthening the TC program's mechanisms for collecting member states' contributions to the TCF to include withholding from nonpaying states a percentage of TC assistance equivalent to the percentage of their target rate that they fail to contribute to the TCF.
Agency Affected: Department of State
Status: In process
Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
Recommendation: To address the range of proliferation and management concerns related to the TC program, the Secretary of State, working with IAEA and member states through the Board of Governors, should explore establishing criteria for determining when member states, especially those defined as high-income countries, no longer need TC assistance in particular fields and when such states could be graduated from further TC support altogether.
Agency Affected: Department of State
Status: In process
Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
Recommendation: To address the range of proliferation and management concerns related to the TC program, the Secretary of State, working with IAEA and member states through the Board of Governors, should explore seeking to implement new results-based performance metrics for the TC program that establish specific national, regional, and interregional social and economic needs and measure the collective impact of TC projects in meeting those objectives.
Agency Affected: Department of State
Status: In process
Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
Recommendation: To address the range of proliferation and management concerns related to the TC program, the Secretary of State, working with IAEA and member states through the Board of Governors, should explore focusing the TC program on a more limited number of high-priority technical areas to maximize the impact of program resources.
Agency Affected: Department of State
Status: In process
Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
Recommendation: To address the range of proliferation and management concerns related to the TC program, the Secretary of State, working with IAEA and member states through the Board of Governors, should explore encouraging the TC program to reach out to private sector entities as part of its new partner and donor development strategy.
Agency Affected: Department of State
Status: In process
Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
Recommendation: To address the range of proliferation and management concerns related to the TC program, the Secretary of State, working with IAEA and member states through the Board of Governors, should explore requesting member states to assess in their TC project proposals the prospects for commercialization of and private sector investment in the results of the projects. Such steps could include requiring information in the proposals on potential business plans, marketing strategies, and strategies for attracting commercial partners once IAEA support has concluded.
Agency Affected: Department of State
Status: In process
Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
Recommendation: To clarify and improve U.S. oversight of the TC program, the Secretary of State should undertake enhancing record-keeping and formally document management actions regarding the discussion, action, and disposition of TC project proposals that DOE and the national laboratories identify as having potential proliferation concerns.
Agency Affected: Department of State
Status: In process
Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
Recommendation: To clarify and improve U.S. oversight of the TC program, the Secretary of State should undertake issuing formal guidance with well-defined criteria--such as countries designated by State as sponsors of terrorism or gross human rights violators--that State should use as the basis for approving or rejecting TC fellowship requests for nuclear studies in the United States. This guidance could include, among other things, a list of specific countries from which State would not approve TC fellows that could be updated and revised annually, or as other circumstances warrant.
Agency Affected: Department of State
Status: In process
Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
