International Atomic Energy Agency

An approach has been devised for implementation of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Safeguards at the Actinide Packaging and Storage Facility (APSF) to be constructed at Savannah River Site (SRS). The APSF will store excess fissile materials from the U.S. weapons program and those materials will be offered for IAEA Safeguards. The IAEA safeguards approach has been developed as a joint effort between the IAEA and U.S. personnel. The approach will provide the capability of remote, unattended verification by the IAEA inspectors of the materials stored in Department of Energy (DOE) type 3013 containers in the APSF storage vault. One basic concept in the approach is establishing the type 3013 containers as the first level of containment. Successful implementation of this concept depends on development of equipment to uniquely identify and verify the integrity of each container. In addition, utilization of authentication techniques on measurement and containment & surveillance data for IAEA inspectors is required to ensure all data collected through the APSF systems are genuine. Equipment and systems for implementation of the safeguards approach are being evaluated by IAEA personnel in a mockup facility at SRS which simulates the conditions that will exist in the APSF. These conditions include the use of automatic guided vehicles in the vault, with no human access, no lighting inside the vault areas, and use of the operator’s measurement equipment in an unattended mode of operation with shared data to verify the inventory under safeguards. The IAEA safeguards approach is discussed in detail in the paper.