New Safeguards Regime for Canadian Bulk Handling Facilities and Spent Fuel Transfers

In September 2005 the IAEA concluded that all nuclear materials in Canada have been used for peaceful activities, thus opening the way to the implementation of integrated safeguards in the country. The integrated safeguards approach developed by the IAEA and described in this paper covers the Canadian natural uranium fuel cycle, including the three conversion plants, three fuel fabrication plants, and five CANDU reactor stations. The approach takes into account the specific characteristics of the natural uranium fuel cycle and is based on a global consideration of this cycle at the State-level, allowing for the verification of nuclear material flow into and out of the fuel cycle. Randomization procedures are applied both in the selection of the facility to be inspected and the inspection timing. The paper also describes a new safeguards approach for verification of spent fuel transfers to dry storage. The approach introduces the use of unannounced inspections to confirm the operator’s information on spent fuel transfer activities. With the new approach, it will no longer be necessary for IAEA inspectors to be physically present during all spent fuel transfers. Among the challenges that the approach addresses are: (a) the verification of the receipts as nuclear material is introduced into the natural uranium fuel cycle; (b) the verification of the product material (CANDU fuel bundles) at the fresh fuel storage of the CANDU reactor stations; (c) the verification of materials in-process during the physical inventory verifications; (d) the verification of inter-facility flows; (e) the verification of international transfers; (f) the use of short notice random inspections (SNRIs) to confirm the absence of borrowing between facilities and (g) the use of unannounced inspections to verify transfers of spent fuel to dry storage. This paper will describe the rationale and elements of the new safeguards approach, and provide an estimate of IAEA resource savings in implementation. It will also include how considerations of the State wide conclusion, which the IAEA has drawn for Canada, were used to optimise the safeguards approaches.