Year
2012
Abstract
Radio frequency identification (RFID) is a mature technology that has been used extensively in industrial applications for many years, but they have not been employed in Safeguards due to different and special operational requirements, as well as data and physical security concerns. Most commercial RFID users are concerned with the cost of the system, as opposed to Safeguard concerns of potential vulnerability of the system that might exist. For Safeguards applications there are three primary concerns: (1) data / physical security, (2) the ability to work in a harsh EM propagation environment, and (3) extreme environmental conditions. In this paper, we describe how Safeguards applications can benefit from RFID technology by identifying the requirements and operational considerations, and addressing the security issues. The scenarios that will be discussed in this paper include: (1) real-time and on-demand monitoring of assets for continuity of knowledge, (2) identifying the presence, absence, and location of an asset within a facility for inventory purposes, (3) tracking the moving assets continuously while they move inside a processing facility, and (4) portal monitoring to track assets moving between material balance areas (MBAs). In the context of Safeguards requirements we discuss capabilities of ultra-wideband (UWB) technology that could address some of the shortfalls of conventional RFID systems for Safeguards applications.