DOE AP Declaration Helper
The DOE AP Declaration Helper is a software tool created to assist
interested parties in determining whether a given activity may or may
not be declarable to the IAEA under the AP. Development and
support of the Declaration Helper is sponsored by the United
States
Department of Energy Office of Global Security Engagement and
Cooperation, and was done in coordination with, and feedback from, the
IAEA.
The central components of the Declaration Helper are two sets of
interview questions. One set assists in evaluating a single
activity and may be used to determine and document whether the activity
may or may not be declarable. The second set is used to
evaluate multiple activities within a State, Party, organization, or
other entity as a whole, and may be used to develop a list of
activities that may be declarable. Both sets ask simple
yes/no questions that guide the user through the requirements of each
article of the Model Protocol and based upon the user’s responses, will
suggest declarability. If an activity is considered
declarable, the Declaration Helper will also indicate which article
applies.
It is important to note that the AP Declaration
Helper must not be
considered the final authority on declarability. It is only a
support tool to assist in the determination, and should only be viewed
as one of several sources of analysis.
The Declaration Helper was publicly released in July 2010. It
is available at no cost at: http://nnsa.energy.gov/aphelper
and
consists of three components:
- Informational Website - contains
information on the AP and the AP Declaration Helper, Frequently Asked
Questions on how to use the tools, links to other resources, and an
e-mail contact to request additional information. Because of the
limited scope of the system, the site does not attempt to copy or
duplicate resources that can be readily obtained from the IAEA website
– including a comprehensive library about the AP.
- Internet-Based Interview - both
the Internet-based and standalone interview modules use simple question
and answer sessions to determine if a given facility or activity might
be declarable under any article of the AP. Because of an early concern
that the website might be capturing data on States’ activities, the
interview process is designed to ask for only the minimum amount of
information necessary to conduct the interview. In fact, no data
whatsoever is actually kept by the system but this additional step was
taken to ensure an extra level of privacy. Click for further instructions
on how to use the Internet-Based Interview
- Standalone (Desktop) Interview -
similar to the Internet-Based Interview with the capability to
download and install the interview module on a standalone
(non-networked) computer of the user’s choice, thereby guaranteeing the
user full control of the interview data. The desktop module is designed
to run on the same computer platform as the IAEA Protocol Reporter.
Minimum requirements for the module are a Pentium class processor, at
least one gigabyte of RAM, and the Microsoft Windows 2000 (SP4)
operating system or later. The desktop module includes the ability for
a user to save an incomplete interview and return to it at a later
time. In this way, if the correct answer to an interview question is
not immediately known, the user can save then retrieve and complete a
partially finished interview when the question is resolved. Fully
complete interviews can also be saved and retrieved if necessary. No
risk of compromise is possible because the computer does not
necessarily need to be connected to a network.
Each component performs a very specific purpose and, when
taken together, make up the AP Declaration Helper.