Year
2004
Abstract
The complexity and diversity of nuclear facilities under safeguards require a diversity of techniques and equipment to meet all goals. The IAEA safeguards approaches are based on nuclear material accountancy as a safeguards measure of fundamental importance complemented by containment and surveillance (C/S) measures to maintain continuity of knowledge CoK). C/S measures are applied to assure that nuclear materials follow predetermined routes and that the integrity of containment remains unimpaired. These measures also help to save safeguards efforts by reducing the frequency of accountancy verification. The demanding role of safeguards equipment, in particular in sealing and containment verification systems, requires continuous improvement by incorporating new technologies, additional functionalities, improved tamper resistance and enhanced security features. Therefore, the IAEA organized a meeting to discuss advanced technologies and provide the Agency with a list of recommendations (roadmap) on how to proceed, where to invest efforts effectively in order to have the next generation of C/S devices within the next 5-10 years. (reference[1]). The participants were nominated to participate in two groups, (1) sealing and (2) containment verification technologies. The participants of each group were challenged to reviewcurrent, short, medium and long-term technologies applicable for implementation in future safeguards equipment used for sealing and containment verification applications. The purpose of this paper is to summarize the results achieved, discuss the path as recommended for reaching the desired C/S equipment for the next several years