Integrated IAEA safeguards concepts for nuclear critical facilities

Technical Report · Wed Aug 01 04:00:00 EDT 1979

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/6081565· OSTI ID:6081565

A study was undertaken to investigate concepts for international safeguards at critical facilities which would minimize impact on normal operations. Only high-inventory critical facilities were considered. A selection of possible system parameters was incorporated into 28 different international safeguards system concepts, one of which was identified for additional evaluation. If this system were implemented, it would involve methods of monitoring movement of materials and people and would maintain a running inventory that is tested periodically by independent inventory sampling. This monitoring would detect inventory and procedural discrepancies as well as unauthorized removal of nuclear materials. A special inventory may be taken following a monitoring alarm to confirm a suspected diversion. Comparison of various safeguards options led to the selection, for further development, of a system which uses a combination of surveillance and inspection by resident International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) personnel, containment/surveillance by unattended equipment, and periodic routine inventory verification. Evaluation techniques were used to establish that this system is likely to have a high probability of detecting the protracted diversion of a significant quantity of nuclear material. It was also established that practical containment and surveillance measures are necessary but may not be sufficient to achieve timely detection. However, due to current limitaions in evaluation methods for assessing containment and surveillance, overall system effectiveness was not quantified.

• Research Organization: Sandia Labs., Albuquerque, NM (USA)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• DOE Contract Number: EY-76-C-04-0789
• OSTI ID: 6081565
• Report Number(s): ALO--0789-T5(Rev.)
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

055001* -- Nuclear Fuels-- Safeguards
Inspection
& Accountability-- Technical Aspects
98 NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT, SAFEGUARDS, AND PHYSICAL PROTECTION
DETECTION
EFFICIENCY
EVALUATION
EXPERIMENTAL REACTORS
IAEA SAFEGUARDS
INVENTORIES
NUCLEAR MATERIALS DIVERSION
REACTORS
RESEARCH AND TEST REACTORS
SAFEGUARDS
ZERO POWER REACTORS