The Safeguards-by-Design Process for a More Effective and Efficient Safeguards Implementation

Safeguarding the nuclear fuel cycle is a key aspect of proliferation resistance. The application of extrinsic measures to achieve the detection and timeliness goals has a strong relationship with the intrinsic design features of facilities. By taking into account design features that facilitate the implementation of international safeguards very early in the design phase, a concept known as ¿safeguards by design¿ (SBD), the overall process can be made more effective and efficient with benefits to all the involved stake-holders. At the end of 2008, the IAEA launched a new task on ¿Guidance for Designers and Operators and Measures to facilitate the implementation of Safeguards at Future Nuclear Cycle Facilities¿, with contributions by EURATOM and Member States Support Programmes, with the aim to formulate SBD Guidelines to designers and operators. The main driving force for this new activity is the foreseen growth in the number of nuclear power generating facilities, and the corresponding increase in other fuel cycle activities such as fuel fabrication and enrichment, all of which which require the application of safeguards. This will pose an additional workload to the IAEA, whose resources however, won¿t increase at a comparable rate, thus demanding for more efficiency. This paper will develop on the achievements of the IAEA task in 2009, and the contents of the first document of the IAEA Safeguards by Design series, as well as on methodological developments.

BOELLA Maurizio;  KOUTSOYANNOPOULOS Christos;  CHARE Peter;  KILLEEN Tom;  SEVINI Filippo;  PEERANI Paolo;  JANSSENS W.; 

2011-01-04

European Nuclear Society

JRC58606