Safeguarding reprocessing plants: Principles, past experience, current practice and future trends

Journal Article · Thu Jul 01 00:00:00 EDT 1993 · JNMM (Journal of the Institute of Nuclear Materials Management); (United States)

OSTI ID:6157176

Shea, T; Deron, S; Franssen, F; Hope, D; Islam, N; Johnson, S; Kuhn, E; Laszlo, G; Neal, D; Renis, T ^[1]

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1. International Atomic Energy Agency, Vienna (Austria)

Under Article 6(c) of all comprehensive International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safeguards agreements, verification procedures are to concentrate on those stages in the nuclear fuel cycle involving the production, processing, use or storage of nuclear material from which nuclear weapons could readily be made. In that context, the most intensive IAEA safeguards are applied at chemical processing plants and other facilities at which separated plutonium is stored, processed or used. The principles underlying the design, implementation and evaluation of IAEA safeguards at chemical reprocessing plant are explored in this paper. The interrelation between the elements of the safeguards approach for such plants is examined, including design verification, extensive use of containment and surveillance, including operations monitoring in certain of the process areas, near-real-time accountancy and conventional accountancy measures. Reference is made to IAEA experience, and current practice is examined at length. New reprocessing plants of large throughput and/or having novel design features are under construction, and the measures currently in use will require extensive effort to provide effective and efficient safeguards implementation.

• OSTI ID: 6157176
• Journal Information: JNMM (Journal of the Institute of Nuclear Materials Management); (United States), Vol. 21:4; ISSN 0893-6188
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

98 NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT, SAFEGUARDS, AND PHYSICAL PROTECTION
11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS
FUEL REPROCESSING PLANTS
IAEA SAFEGUARDS
ACCOUNTING
CONSTRUCTION
DESIGN
DISSOLUTION
DOCUMENTATION
EFFICIENCY
FISSION PRODUCTS
FUEL ASSEMBLY DISMANTLING
FUEL CYCLE
HIGHLY ENRICHED URANIUM
IAEA
IMPLEMENTATION
INSPECTION
INVENTORIES
NUCLEAR MATERIALS DIVERSION
NUCLEAR MATERIALS MANAGEMENT
PLANNING
PLUTONIUM
RESEARCH PROGRAMS
SAFEGUARD REGULATIONS
SPENT FUEL STORAGE
ACTINIDES
ELEMENTS
ENRICHED URANIUM
INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
ISOTOPE ENRICHED MATERIALS
ISOTOPES
MANAGEMENT
MATERIALS
METALS
NUCLEAR FACILITIES
RADIOACTIVE MATERIALS
REGULATIONS
SAFEGUARDS
STORAGE
TRANSURANIUM ELEMENTS
URANIUM
055000* - Nuclear Fuels- Safeguards
Inspection
& Accountability
050800 - Nuclear Fuels- Spent Fuels Reprocessing