The Importance of Establishing and Maintaining Continuity of Knowledge During 21st Century Nuclear Fuel Cycle Activities

During this century, the entire nuclear fuel cycle will expand andbecome increasingly more global, taxing both the resources andcapabilities of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)to maintain an effective Continuity of Knowledge (CoK) and itsability to provide timely detection of diversion. Uranium thatcurrently is mined and milled in one country will be converted,enriched, and fabricated into fuel for reactors in an expanding setof new countries. This expansion will make it harder to guaranteethat regional activities stay regional and that diversion detectionis timely unless new and sustainable tools are developed to improveinspector effectiveness. To deal with this emerging reality,the IAEA must increase its use of unattended monitoring andemploy new tools and methods that enhance CoK during allphases of the fuel cycle. This approach will help provide usefulinformation to aid in detecting undeclared activities and createopportunities for timely and appropriate responses to events wellbefore they enter phases of greater concern (e.g., enrichment).The systems that maintain CoK of safeguarded assets relyon containment and surveillance (C/S) technologies. The 21stcentury fuel cycle will require increased use of these technologiesand systems, plus greater implementation of unattended systemsthat can securely collect data when inspectors are not present.This paper will describe the aspects and some of the capabilitiesthat will be needed to address the expanding global fuel cycle toensure that verifiable CoK of fuel cycle materials a