A Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) Approach to Monitoring UF6 Cylinders: Lessons Learned from TradeLens

Every year thousands of tons of uranium hexafluoride (UF6) are produced and transported worldwide in international certified containers from conversion plants to enrichment plants to fuel fabrication plants. Although the IAEA and nuclear industry are effective in monitoring this valuable nuclear material, it still may take several weeks before cylinders are detected and located if missing. To address these monitoring gaps, the World Nuclear Transport Institute (WNTI) released a guide in 2017 on an industry-wide identification format for UF6 cylinders. Following the acceptance of the WNTI standard, this paper proposes an additional feature could be included to better monitor UF6 cylinders—a distributed ledger system that is utilized across the nuclear industry. By reflecting on the lessons learned from TradeLens—an IBM and Maersk jointly developed “blockchain-enabled shipping solution”, this paper will analyze the benefits and challenges of implementing a permission-based distributed ledger technology (DLT) for the supply chain management of UF6 cylinders. While DLT may have the potential to help overcome current monitoring gaps at the front end of the fuel cycle, this paper will argue that the challenges demonstrate how several key conditions are required for reliable implementation of DLT for monitoring UF6 cylinders.