Enhancement of Safeguards Efficiency for CANDU Spent Fuel in Canada

Since the 1960s, Canada's nuclear power reactors have used over 2.5 million fuel bundles. Each year, about 5,000 fuel bundles per power reactor are added to the water storage pools where they remain for 7 to 10 years before being transferred to dry storage. There are three main types of dry storage units (DSUs) used in Canada: concrete canisters, Modular Air-cooled Storage (MACSTOR) units, and dry storage containers (DSCs). There are currently over 2000 DSCs containing discharged fuel bundles at Canadian spent fuel waste management facilities (WMFs) and more are added weekly. Safeguarding spent fuel in Canada has been recognized by the IAEA and Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) to be a resource challenge. The current IAEA safeguards measures for DSCs include radiation profiles and the use of metal and COBRA seals. The application and subsequent routine verification of these seals are resource-intensive for the IAEA, making this approach unsustainable in the longer term. In order to enhance safeguards efficiency for spent fuel in Canada, the CNSC has worked with the IAEA and facility operators to develop new approaches. This paper discusses the development and implementation of these new approaches through trilateral cooperation between the IAEA, CNSC and facility operators, including: the establishment of laydown areas to allow IAEA inspectors to seal more DSCs per visit; the deployment of Laser Mapping for Containment Verification (LMCV) as a future replacement for metal seals on DSCs and possibly other DSUs, and the IAEA proposal of a more equipment-based approach for spent fuel transfers.