A Case Study for the INPRO Collaborative Project “Proliferation Resistance and Safeguardability Assessment Tools (PROSA)”

With the objective of making the assessment of proliferation resistance (PR) of a nuclear energy system (NES) easy to understand and perform, the INPRO Collaborative Project on Proliferation Resistance and Safeguardability Assessment Tools (PROSA) proposes a revised methodology that has been reconfigured as a linear process evaluating the NES against the “Basic Principle” in the area of proliferation resistance. To illustrate the proposed PROSA process, to demonstrate its usefulness, and to provide input to a revision of the INPRO manual in the area of proliferation resistance, a case study has been carried out with a conceptually designed sodium-cooled fast reactor (SFR) metal fuel manufacturing facility (SFMF), representing novel technology still in the conceptual design phase. This first of all allows testing all elements of the proposed assessment process, from the early stage of design, and allows also showing the interrelationship of the PR assessment to the safeguards-by-design process, identifying potential R&D gaps. A coarse acquisition path analysis has been carried out of the SFMF which does not claim to be complete, but already detailed enough for demonstrating the assessment process. For the analysis different target materials were identified in the facility. Relevant information regarding the nuclear material (quality, quantity and form), facilities and technologies present, origin of any imported services associated, and international nonproliferation obligations at the State level were collected needed for the evaluation of proliferation resistance of the SFMF, as well as to support a safeguardability assessment and an assessment of the IAEA safeguards effort at the facility. It was not intended to develop a complete safeguards approach, but to show that the assessment can provide reasonable insights for the implementation of effective and efficient safeguards, and the coverage of the NES by multiple and mutually supportive intrinsic features and extrinsic measures. The case study could demonstrate the usefulness of all elements of the proposed PROSA assessment process and also has shown the interrelationship of the PR assessment with the safeguards-by-design process, identifying potential R&D needs.