The NINO Cask-loading Safeguards System

It is, in general, difficult to determine by means of camera-surveillance techniques what is loaded into spent-fuel casks being prepared for shipment from light-water reactors to other reactors, reprocessing facilities, or long-term storage. Furthermore, the expected high frequency of cask loadings in the coming years would place too great a burden on the IAEA and Euratom inspectorates if each had to be observed by an inspector. For the case of shipment to other reactors and reprocessing facilities, the casks are soon opened and, in principle, their contents could be ascertained by direct inspection. In the case of long-term-storage facilities, the casks would stay sealed for years, thereby requiring the IAEA to know positively how many spent-fuel assemblies were loaded at the reactor and to have a continuity of knowledge of the cask's contents. It has been proposed instead that the facility operator place the cask seal on the cask within the field of view of a surveillance system linked to the cask seal. This solution, however, may not provide enough credibility for acceptance by the safeguards community. This paper presents an alternative to both inspector presence at cask loading and operator assistance in applying seals; this alternative is called the No Inspector, No Operator system (NINO).