Experiences and trends in safeguarding plutonium mixed oxide (MOX) fuel fabrication plants

Safeguard approaches for manually operated MOX fuel fabrication plants are compared to recent approaches adopted for automated fuel fabrication plants. Near real time accountancy (NRTA), in-line non-destructive assay (NDA) instrumentation and advanced containment and surveillance (C/S) systems for automated plants are described. The balance between high capital investments and achievable inspection effort reductions, minimization of radiation exposure and intrusiveness, improvements in timely detection efficiency and effectiveness of safeguards are discussed. The need for close cooperation between the operator, the state and the inspectorate in implementing safeguards approaches in future plants is stressed. Other technological developments which may become available in the future could enable the Agency to perform remote certification of certain operator actions by on-line data communication between facilities and a central inspection control unit.