Safeguards and Security by Design: Considerations for Small Modular Reactors

The incorporation of safeguards and security features early in the design process of a nuclear facility is widely accepted as good practice from both an efficacy and efficiency perspective, and is generically known as Safeguards and Security by Design. More often than not, and despite the good intentions of all parties involved, realizing Safeguards and Security by Design goals during the design and construction of new nuclear facilities are largely unmet primarily as a result of a lack of formality to the Safeguards and Security by Design process. The safeguards community has worked actively over the last several years to codify and institutionalize this concept through a series of studies, reports, and workshops, the most recent being the International Atomic Energy Agency hosted technical meeting on facility-specific guidance for nuclear reactors. The guidance document to be produced from this technical meeting is intended to be the first in a series of guidance documents covering all aspects of the nuclear fuel cycle. The current interest in small modular reactors provides an excellent opportunity to further Safeguards and Security by Design as there are many new designs under development. A Safeguards and Security by Design activity is being pursued under the U.S.-Russia Civil Nuclear Energy Working Sub-group, with initial focus on concepts and recommendations for small modular reactors. In this paper, we report on the progress of this bilateral cooperation in the context of the recent the International Atomic Energy Agency’s facility-specific Safeguards by Design guidance document series.