IAEA Symposium on International Safeguards

UAE Nuclear Export Controls: a Success Story

6 Nov 2018, 16:00

5m

M2 (Vienna International Centre)

Roundtable Member Addressing Growing Safeguards Challenges (CHA) [CHA] Non-proliferation and the Globalized Marketplace – Perspectives of International Organizations, National Authorities and Industry

Speaker

Mrs Maryam Alsehaimy (United Arab Emirates)

Description

Due to its strategic location between East and West, the large number of ports and free trade zones and a business-friendly environment, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is one of the world’s major trade hubs - and a target for illicit nuclear procurement networks.
Since then, following the requirements of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1540, the UAE has successfully enhanced its nuclear export controls. The first step was the creation of a Committee for Goods and Materials Subject to Import and Export Control in 2007. In 2008 the UAE evaluated the potential benefits of nuclear power. A year later the UAE decided to embark on a peaceful nuclear programme by awarding a contract to Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO) for the construction of four APR-1400 reactors at Barakah, implementing the “Gold Standard” of non-proliferation. The Nuclear Law was issued in 2009, establishing the Federal Authority for Nuclear Regulation (FANR) as the UAE’s regulator. The UAE voluntarily committed to abide by the Nuclear Suppliers Group Guidelines. FANR assumed the responsibility for nuclear-related export controls and issued the Regulation on the Export and Import Control of Nuclear Material, Nuclear Related Items and Nuclear Related Dual Use Items, which specifies FANR’s licensing, reporting and inspection requirements and forms the legal basis for controlling all nuclear-related imports, exports, re-exports, transits and transshipments in the UAE.
FANR has established a methodology based on Harmonized System Codes to identify potentially regulated items and control their transfers. FANR also conducts regular outreach activities, organizes workshops with international attendance and collaborates with various countries in the area of nuclear export controls. Owing to FANR’s close cooperation with the UAE’s different customs authorities and State Security, several unlicensed trans-shipments of proliferation concern have successfully been intercepted and seized