Safeguards by Design

It is widely accepted that effective safeguards in a large and complex nuclear facility can best be achieved by including safeguards in the main parameters affecting conceptual design, and that the safeguards inspectorates could make a useful input to the design process. BNFL has accumulated more than ten years' experience in this field, culminating in the design of THORP, where the need for effective safeguards has been fully taken into account from an early stage. On the basis of that experience, there is now a high awareness among design groups of the importance of materials control and safeguards, and the requirement to make provision in plant design is embodied in the Company Policy Manual and Standards Manual. This paper relates BNFL's experience, and provides answers to some basic questions concerning, for example, cost, timing, involvement of inspectorates, licensing, and effectiveness. The lessons learned should help to align theory with what can be achieved in an industrial environment subject to constraints of economy, security, and construction programmes, and thereby provide a realistic basis for further progress in this important field of safeguards development.