Passive and Active Ways of Unique Tagging/Labeling of Long-term Stored Nuclear Waste Copper Canisters

New passive and active tags/labels are suggested to provide a long-term security identification of nuclear waste containers. An active version of the tag is based on the use of a mixture of alpha-emitting isotopes, such as Am with materials, e.g. B and Na, which easily undergo alpha-induced reactions with emission of specific gamma-lines, i.e. 2313 keV and 1809 keV, respectively. Thus, the use of high-energy signature eliminates the problem with radiation background coming from the fuel. The passive version of the tag, on the contrary, counts on/requires the radiation background coming from the nuclear waste. It represents a tungsten/lead insert that is placed inside the container. In this case, the tungsten/lead is marked with the code. It is suggested that the passive tag is read in two alternative ways, i.e. by radiation detector and ultrasound. In a case of radiation detection, the variation in the gamma background from the spent nuclear fuel caused by the passive tungsten/lead tag gives an image of the code marked in the insert. As regards to the ultrasound reading, discontinuities in the material (the code which is cut out in the tungsten/lead insert) lead to the reconstruction of the original code. The combination of two methods offers several advantages, as compared to existing tagging techniques, i.e. long operating time, environmental safety, noncontact reader system, large and unique tag memory, security technique against falsification of data, errors/multiple verification. In the present paper we describe the results of experimental and Monte-Carlo evaluation of the feasibility of the proposed approach. In a long term run, this approach might give the possibility of maintaining continuity of knowledge of nuclear waste in containers for a time scale up to a few thousands years without comprising of the environmental safety aspect of containers.