Achieving Safeguards Objectives for the Encapsulation Plant and Geological Repository in Finland

In order to maintain effective and efficient safeguards, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), in cooperation with European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom) and the Finnish Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority (STUK), continues to evolve its safeguards system by taking advantage of new techniques and technologies, and the development or adaptation of new and existing safeguards concepts and approaches. By 2025, the spent fuel encapsulation plant and geological repository (EPGR) in Finland will become the first operational facilities of their type in the EU under the Euratom Treaty, and in the world under a comprehensive safeguards agreement (CSA) with the IAEA. In response to the need to establish an effective safeguards approach for the future EPGR, Euratom, the IAEA and STUK are jointly working on identifying safeguards measures and techniques that will be implemented before operational start to efficiently meet the safeguards technical objectives relevant to these facilities. The identification of possible safeguards measures has been carried out within the framework of the Safeguards by Design (SbD) concept that enables each of the international safeguards inspectorates (Euratom and IAEA), as well as the national authority (STUK), to effectively and efficiently fulfil their mandates related to the implementation of safeguards, while at the same time minimising the burden of safeguards implementation on operation of the EPGR. This paper will use the EPGR Project in Finland as a case study to demonstrate how the need to achieve safeguards objectives drives the implementation and development of both traditional and innovative safeguards measures and techniques, with SbD supporting the effective and efficient use of available resources.