Austrian National Paper: "Radionuclide Laboratories - Preparation for Entry into Force"

The radionuclide laboratories need to be fully operational at entry into force, as must any other component in the verification regime laid down in the Treaty. To allow pending issues to be resolved and the certification of laboratories to commence, both technical and commercial issues have to be addressed. Wherever upgrades of laboratory detection capability are considered, these issues are all the more urgent, since long term planning will be involved. Harmonization of laboratory management and review of corresponding software will be other tasks to be considered. We consider that technical specifications and operational parameters (type and frequency of services) have to be laid down to allow the Technical Secretariat to draft a Model Contract for laboratory operation.