Progress of a Member State Support Program (MSSP) for the Development of a Safeguards Approach for a Pyroprocessing Facility

A member state support program (MSSP) has been carried out to support the development of an IAEA safeguards approach on a pyroprocessing facility since August, 2008. In the 1st year, pyroprocessing facility concepts suggested by the U.S., Japan, and the Republic of Korea have been analyzed, and the determination principles were established to determine a reference pyroprocessing facility. Three proposals for the reference pyroprocessing facility concept were suggested and analyzed based on these principles: a model which is based on the GEN-IV PR/PP model except for the metal fuel fabrication process, the INL and ANL model, and the ESPF of KAERI. With the review of the IAEA and discussions at the 3rd Working Group Meeting held at IAEA headquarters, the ESPF concept of Korea has finally been determined as the reference pyroprocessing facility (REPF). Based on the current process and material flowsheet of the reference pyroprocessing facility, a computer program which can simulate the flowsheet and compute MUF (Material Unaccounted For) has been developed. It is assumed that the existing equipments are used to measure nuclear materials. The errors and uncertainties are cited from the existing documents and references. The MUF uncertainty of Pu seems to satisfy a typical IAEA detection goal at the capacity of 10 ton/year.