Potential approaches to international safeguards at spent nuclear fuel consolidation facilities

Conference · Tue Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1991 · Nuclear Materials Management. Annual Meeting Proceedings; (United States)

OSTI ID:5718880

Belew, W L; Moran, B W ^[1]

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1. Martin Marietta Energy Systems, Inc., Oak Ridge, TN (United States)

In the nuclear power industry, the fuel assembly is the basic unit for nuclear material accountancy. Safeguards procedures for the spent fuel assemblies are, therefore, based on an item accountancy approach. When fuel consolidation occurs in at-reactor or away-from-reactor facilities, the fuel assemblies are disassembled and cease to be the basic unit containing nuclear material. Safeguards can no longer be based on item accountancy of fuel assemblies. The spent fuel pins containing plutonium are accessible, and the possibilities for spent fuel to be diverted for clandestine reprocessing to recover the plutonium are increased. Safeguards approaches that address this concern must be identified, so facility designs may include the equipment and systems required for an acceptable level of assurance that the international safeguards objectives can be met when these facilities come on-line. The generic safeguards approaches described in this paper illustrate the technologies that could be used to address the safeguards concerns in spent fuel consolidation facilities. In this paper two safeguards approaches are described in detail: a perimeter safeguards system and a pin-tracking and verification system.

• OSTI ID: 5718880
• Report Number(s): CONF-910774--
• Conference Information: Journal Name: Nuclear Materials Management. Annual Meeting Proceedings; (United States) Journal Volume: 20
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

050800 -- Nuclear Fuels-- Spent Fuels Reprocessing
055000* -- Nuclear Fuels-- Safeguards
Inspection
& Accountability
11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS
98 NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT, SAFEGUARDS, AND PHYSICAL PROTECTION
ACCOUNTING
ACTINIDE ISOTOPES
AGREEMENTS
CASKS
CONTAINERS
EFFICIENCY
ENERGY SOURCES
FUEL ASSEMBLIES
FUELS
HUMAN INTRUSION
INDUSTRY
INTERNATIONAL AGREEMENTS
ISOTOPES
MATERIALS
NUCLEAR FACILITIES
NUCLEAR FUELS
NUCLEAR INDUSTRY
NUCLEAR POWER
PLUTONIUM ISOTOPES
POWER
REACTOR MATERIALS
RELIABILITY
REPROCESSING
SAFEGUARDS
SEPARATION PROCESSES
SPENT FUEL CASKS
SPENT FUELS