State level concepts, or SLC, have been a burr under the IAEA’s saddle as it seeks to introduce a broader approach to its conduct of safeguards to verify states’ compliance with their obligations under the Treaty On The Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT)
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The SLC is a comprehensive approach to implementing safeguards that emphasizes using all available and relevant information about a state’s nuclear program to guide the Agency’s safeguards activities in that state, instead of focusing on specific facilities
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A safeguards implementation plan for a specific state that uses this concept is called a state-level approach.

According to the IAEA, applying state-level approaches allows it to more efficiently use its limited resources and focus more on detection of possible undeclared activities
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The Agency says that the SLC approach is more efficient and makes better use of its resources by using all available and relevant information about a state’s nuclear program instead of focusing on specific facilities
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There has been resistance from several IAEA member states to SLC

. At the start of its Safeguards Symposium, 20 – 24 October, regrettably closed to media, the following statement was delivered by the head of Russia’s delegation Grigory Berdennikov.

Read Russian Statement at the IAEA Safeguards Symposium here.