Speaker
Leif Persson
(European Commission, DG Energy, Nuclear Safeguards)
Description
As part of the UK strategy to consolidate nuclear material (NM) allowing for declassification of a number of UK facilities, transfer of un-irradiated NM from Dounreay to Sellafield is envisaged. Dounreay will therefore construct a facility to condition and characterise most of the NM before shipment. On the Sellafield site, construction of a dedicated storage facility for material arriving in cans is in progress, whereas assemblies will be stored in an existing assembly store.
Both operators and ONR Safeguards (the national safeguards authority) have voluntarily engaged with Euratom safeguards earlier than legally required in order to facilitate the implementation of safeguards and reduce project risks. This early engagement followed by regular interaction between the parties has been crucial when addressing challenges encountered associated with logistics, security and a very tight time schedule and has played a major role in the process of optimising the approach.
This paper describes the safeguards approaches developed for the two UK sites and how they aim to optimise the use of resources. For example, NM will be characterised for safeguards purposes at one site only. The location chosen for characterisation of the material depends on the need for the Dounreay operator to obtain knowledge of the NM, the need for Euratom to maintain safeguards knowledge of the material once verified using containment and surveillance (C/S), instrument requirements, flexibility of operations, requirements for inspector presence, etc. Remote data transmission will be a crucial aspect of the verification approach at both sites.
| Country or International Organization | European Commission, DG Energy, Nuclear Safeguards |
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Primary author
Leif Persson
(European Commission, DG Energy, Nuclear Safeguards)
Co-authors
Agris Ozols
(European Commission, DG Energy, Nuclear Safeguards)
Alan Homer
(Sellafield Ltd, Sellafield, UK)
Alex Anderson
(Dounreay Site Restoration Ltd, Caithness, UK)
Mr
Auko Kiewiet
(European Commission, DG Energy, Nuclear Safeguards)
Darius Ancius
(European Commission, DG Energy, Nuclear Safeguards)
Ian Wheeler
(Sellafield Ltd, Sellafield, UK)
Marin Ayranov
(European Commission, DG Energy, Nuclear Safeguards)
Mike Beaman
(Office of Nuclear Regulation (ONR), UK)
Robbie Harrison
(Dounreay Site Restoration Ltd, Caithness, UK)
Sotiris Synetos
(European Commission, DG Energy, Nuclear Safeguards)
Yves Lahogue
(European Commission, DG Energy, Nuclear Safeguards)
