ONN Participates in the 2022 IAEA Symposium on International Safeguards

The IAEA Symposium on International Safeguards is held every four years and brings together global stakeholders to exchange ideas and share experiences and knowledge with the single goal of supporting and strengthening IAEA safeguards. This year’s Symposium was particularly significant to the international safeguards community: the year 2022 marked 60 years of IAEA inspections, 50 years of comprehensive safeguards agreements (CSAs) and 25 years of additional protocols (AP).

ONN experts were honoured to contribute to the discussions and present their research during the Symposium.

Our Analyst, Tianran Xu, presented highlights from the paper “Navigating Ethical Dilemmas in Open Source Information Analysis” authored by ONN Analysts, Sarah Laderman and Tianran Xu, Research and Analysis Manager Marcy Fowler, and Ben Loehrke and Luisa Kenausis from the Stanley Center for Peace and Security. The paper offered an overview of a framework to help OSINT analysts make ethical decisions during research.

Next, Analyst Jaewoo Shin shared findings from two papers in one presentation. One paper, “Usage of Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) Data for Nuclear Fuel Cycle Monitoring", which Jaewoo co-authored with ONN Research and Analysis Manager Marcy Fowler and Dr. Paolo Pasquali from sarmap, shows how SAR data can provide unique information on uranium mining and milling sites and various nuclear facilities, such as enrichment sites and nuclear power plants. 

The second paper, "Improving Data Access and Credibility in Low-Information Environments: Case of DPRK," offers an overview of how DPRK propaganda analysis, satellite imagery, photos from DPRK media and third-party reporting can help to improve access to a low-information environment like the DPRK. This paper was written by Jaewoo, Regional Issues Manager and Senior Analyst Rachel Minyoung Lee, Analyst Tianran Xu and Research Consultant Elin Bergner. 
 

Later in the day, ONN Analyst Sarah Laderman gave a presentation on a paper entitled, “Combating Nuclear Mis/Disinformation: Tools, Approaches and the Role of NGOs and IOs.” The paper, written by Research and Analysis Manager Marcy Fowler and Research Consultants Elin Bergner and Kristiana Nitisa, underscores the importance of ensuring that organizations working on nuclear non-proliferation use all the best analytical practices, tools and methods to reliably identify disinformation in their analyses.