REMOTE AND UNATTENDED MONITORING: PATH FORWARD PROCESS

Over the last half of the decade of the 1990's, the United States Department of Energy's (DOE) International Safeguards Division has exerted great effort and significant resources to develop remote and unattended monitoring. The main purpose of this effort has been to assist the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) with its mission of international safeguards. There have been many field trials conducted, technologies developed, and lessons learned. Remote and unattended monitoring still has strong advocates and strong critics. Although the concept has shown great promise in some instances, it has not yet gained widespread use for actual applications. Systems and component reliability, along with cost effectiveness, are still major concerns that impede its further acceptance. This paper will look at the original stated objectives of remote and unattended monitoring, and evaluate their potential for success based on experience gained over the past few years. It will also address lessons learned to date, and offer a path forward from the NNSA point of view.