1. This Convention shall apply to nuclear material used for peaceful purposes in use, storage and transport and to nuclear facilities used for peaceful purposes, provided, however, that articles 3 and 4 and paragraph 4 of article 5 of this Convention shall only apply to such nuclear material while it is in international nuclear transport.
2. The establishment, implementation and maintenance of a physical protection regime in the territory of a State Party is the sole responsibility of that State.
3. Apart from the commitments expressly undertaken by States Parties under this Convention, nothing in this Convention shall be interpreted as affecting the sovereign rights of a State.
4. (a) Nothing in this Convention shall affect other rights, obligations and responsibilities of States Parties under international law, in particular the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations and international humanitarian law.
(b) The activities of armed forces during an armed conflict, as those terms are understood under international humanitarian law, which are governed by that law shall not be governed by this Convention, and the activities undertaken by military forces of a State in the exercise of their official duties, inasmuch as they are governed by other rules of international law, shall not be governed by this Convention.
(c) Nothing in this Convention shall be construed as a lawful authorization to use or threaten to use force against nuclear material or nuclear facilities used for peaceful purposes.
(d) Nothing in this Convention condones or legitimizes otherwise unlawful acts, nor precludes prosecution under other laws.
5. This Convention shall not apply to nuclear material used or retained for military purposes or to a nuclear facility containing such material.
(Thus amended by the sole article of International Treaty No. 9414 of December 7, 2016) (*) Article 2 A 1. Each State Party shall establish, implement and maintain an appropriate physical protection regime for nuclear material and nuclear facilities under its jurisdiction, with the aim of:
(a) protecting against theft and other unlawful taking of nuclear material in use, storage and transport; (b) ensuring the implementation of rapid and comprehensive measures to locate and, where appropriate, recover missing or stolen nuclear material; when the material is located outside its territory, the State Party shall act in accordance with article 5; (c) protecting nuclear material and nuclear facilities against sabotage; and (d) mitigating or minimizing the radiological consequences of sabotage.
2. In implementing paragraph 1, each State Party shall:
(a) establish and maintain a legislative and regulatory framework to govern physical protection; (b) establish or designate a competent authority or authorities responsible for the implementation of the legislative and regulatory framework; and (c) take other appropriate measures necessary for the physical protection of nuclear material and nuclear facilities.
3. In carrying out the obligations under paragraphs 1 and 2, each State Party shall, without prejudice to any other provisions of this Convention, apply insofar as is reasonable and practicable the following Fundamental Principles of physical protection of nuclear material and nuclear facilities.
FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLE A: Responsibility of the State The establishment, implementation and maintenance of a physical protection regime within a State is the sole responsibility of that State.
FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLE B: Responsibilities During International Transport The responsibility of a State for ensuring that nuclear material is adequately protected extends to the international transport thereof, until that responsibility is properly transferred to another State, as appropriate.
FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLE C: Legislative and Regulatory Framework The State is responsible for establishing and maintaining a legislative and regulatory framework to govern physical protection. That framework should provide for the establishment of applicable physical protection requirements and include a system of evaluation and licensing or other procedures for granting authorization. This framework should include a system of inspection of nuclear facilities and transport to verify compliance with applicable requirements and conditions of the license or other authorizing document, and establish means to enforce applicable requirements and conditions, including effective sanctions.
FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLE D: Competent Authority The State should establish or designate a competent authority responsible for the implementation of the legislative and regulatory framework, which is vested with adequate authority, competence and financial and human resources to fulfill its assigned responsibilities. The State should take steps to ensure an effective independence between the functions of the State’s competent authority and those of any other body in charge of the promotion or utilization of nuclear energy.
FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLE E: Responsibility of the License Holder The responsibilities for implementing the various elements of physical protection within a State should be clearly identified. The State should ensure that the prime responsibility for the implementation of physical protection of nuclear material or of nuclear facilities rests with the holders of the relevant licenses or of other authorizing documents (e.g., operators or shippers).
FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLE F: Security Culture All organizations involved in implementing physical protection should give due priority to the security culture, to its development and maintenance necessary to ensure its effective implementation in the entire organization.
FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLE G: Threat Physical protection in the State should be based on the State’s current evaluation of the threat.
FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLE H: Graded Approach Physical protection requirements should be based on a graded approach, taking into account the current evaluation of the threat, the relative attractiveness of the material, the nature of the material and potential consequences associated with the unauthorized removal of nuclear material and with the sabotage against nuclear material or nuclear facilities.
FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLE I: Defence in Depth The State’s requirements for physical protection should reflect a concept of several layers and methods of protection (structural or other technical, personnel and organizational) that have to be overcome or circumvented by an adversary in order to achieve his objectives.
FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLE J: Quality Assurance A policy and quality assurance programmes shall be established and implemented with a view to providing confidence that specified requirements for all activities important to physical protection are satisfied.
FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLE K: Contingency Plans All license holders and authorities concerned should prepare and carry out, as appropriate, contingency (emergency) plans to respond to unauthorized removal of nuclear material or sabotage of nuclear facilities or nuclear material, or attempts thereof.
FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLE L: Confidentiality The State should establish requirements for protecting the confidentiality of information whose unauthorized disclosure could compromise the physical protection of nuclear material and nuclear facilities.
4. (a) The provisions of this article shall not apply to nuclear material which the State Party reasonably decides does not need to be subject to the physical protection regime established pursuant to paragraph 1, taking into account the nature of the material, the quantity and relative attractiveness thereof, and the potential radiological and other consequences associated with any unauthorized act directed against it and the current evaluation of the threat against it.
(b) Nuclear material which is not subject to the provisions of this article pursuant to subparagraph (a) should be protected in accordance with prudent management practice.
(*) (Thus Article 2 A was added by the sole article of International Treaty No. 9414 of December 7, 2016)