Safeguards By Design (SBD) For Small Modular Reactors (SMRs)

Safeguards by Design (SBD) is an approach whereby international safeguards requirements and objectives are fully integrated into the design process from initial planning through design, construction, operation, modification and decommissioning of nuclear facilities. Safeguards by Design is a voluntary process which does not replace a State’s existing obligations for provision of information to the IAEA under its safeguards agreement, but which can lead to additional benefits for all stakeholders in terms of efficiency of safeguards implementation. Although SBD can be applied at any stage or facility of the nuclear fuel cycle, this paper has particular relevance in the development of Small Modular Reactors (SMRs), since many of these systems involve innovative technical characteristics and would require the development of new safeguards measures. To support the IAEA’s efforts to understand these designs as early as possible, a Member State Support Program (MSSP) task was established in 2018 to engage directly with the SMR design community through the MSSP framework. In this regard, SBD MSSP task on SMRs was initially proposed to Member States in July 2018. Six States (Canada, Finland, France, Republic of Korea, Russia and USA) have accepted the proposal so far. In addition, Development of safeguards measures for the HTR-PM plant in China has been carried out in a separate task. This paper will summarize the safeguards-by-design efforts of the IAEA with regards to SMRs, including both external interaction within the MSSP framework, and internal interaction within the IAEA as a whole.