FACET (“Facilitating Cylinder and Enrichment Tracing”) is an analytical tool under development in the Department of Safeguards of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) which aims to aid detection of the diversion of nuclear material and facility misuse, and helps address metrological challenges encountered in the safeguards evaluations of large gas centrifuge enrichment plants (GCEPs). FACET consists of two parts: 1) a database of UF6 cylinder serial numbers and aliases mined from the worldwide data declared to and collected by the IAEA; and 2) a collection of software tools that trace and analyze individual UF6 cylinder movements and reported cylinder content changes through the cylinder’s lifetime. FACET cross-references cylinder data with the IAEA’s internal databases of non-destructive assay (NDA), environmental sampling (ES), and destructive analysis (DA) sample results. FACET can enhance material balance evaluation for both GCEPs and conversion plants, enable mass balance and process monitoring, focus ES activities, and strengthen ES analyses. In addition, FACET can aid in-field safeguards verification activities, in particular, by comparing observed operational process attributes, design information, measurement results, and records with declarations in order to better and more promptly detect any potential misuse or diversion, or help clarify discrepancies.
Year
2024
Abstract