THE PROSPECTS OF REMOTE MONITORING

The European Commission performs safeguards on nuclear material in application of Chapter VII of the EURATOM-Treaty. The executive body of the Commission for carrying out this task under European law is the EURATOM Safeguards Office (ESO) located at Luxembourg. In complying with the Treaty obligations each holder of nuclear material in the European Union has to keep a relevant accountancy system and to report to the Commission on a regular basis all stocks and movements. Inspectors of the Commission verify in situ consistency between book and physical stocks. For that purpose they utilise appropriate measurements techniques and apply containment and surveillance measures to keep continuity of knowledge. To optimise resources, techniques are under continuing development to remotely monitor signals from on-site safeguards equipment with the objective to avoid frequent travelling of inspectors to facilities, to provide for flexibility of plant operation and to minimise operator’s disturbance. This technique of “Remote Monitoring” has got world-wide attention, not only in Safeguards, but also nowadays in other areas related to safety and security. This paper examines the prospects of Remote Monitoring and its synergy effects it may present to various other applications.