Responding To Evolving Safeguards Challenges At Fukushima Dai-ichi

IAEA Safeguards relies heavily on the timely access of inspectors to nuclear material and facilities to support the drawing of conclusions. The conditions at the Fukushima Dai-ichi site after the impact of the 2011 Great Tohoku Earthquake and tsunami presented unprecedented and continuously evolving challenges. To overcome these dynamic challenges, the IAEA has developed innovative measures that support the IAEA’s mission of drawing independent conclusions, and worked hand-in-hand with the Japan Safeguards Office (JSGO) of the Japanese Nuclear Regulation Authority and with the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) to implement the measures on the site, to provide assurance of the non-diversion of nuclear material to non-peaceful activities. These innovations have been a combination of technological advances and adaptations of the safeguards approach to the site; the implementation also takes benefit of enhanced cooperation provided by JSGO and TEPCO. The IAEA has developed and installed technologies on the site that, in the event of undeclared removal of spent fuel from the damaged units, would be capable of monitoring it. Additionally, the IAEA developed new technologies and techniques to verify the fuel recovered from the spent fuel ponds of the damaged units, some of which is rubble-encrusted, distorted or bent. The IAEA has worked to return a number of facilities to a routine verification regime despite the difficult conditions, has regularly accessed the site to perform design information verification activities as remediation work has opened new possibilities for access, and has implemented regimes of short-notice access to build confidence on the absence of undeclared activities at the site in the wider context of the State-level approach for Japan. Benefitting from these responsive innovations, and through enhanced access to the Site with the cooperation of JSGO and TEPCO, IAEA safeguards at the site has successfully continued after the tsunami, and will continue to evolve as the conditions on the site change over time.