Design Concept of the Electronic Optical Sealing System EOSS

The Electronic Optical Sealing System EOSS is being developed under the German Support Programme to the International Atomic Energy Agency IAEA with participation of the Euratom Safeguards Office ESO. The development is based on user requirements established by IAEA and ESO. The design concept is based on functioning prototypes. It is still subject to changes depending on the results of planned qualification testing (environmental, radiation, electro-magnetic interference EMI, vulnerability, usability). The sealing function is realised by a fibre optical cable (FOC), the two connectors of which sit in a seal box. If the FOC is disconnected, the seal status is ”open”, otherwise ”closed”. The status is monitored by transmitting laser-light through the FOC. The seal has a number of tamper-indicating features as well as data authentication and encryption for remote data retrieval. Up to 32 seals can share one data bus. The paper gives an overview of the design concept.