System Level Testing of the Data Collection and Evaluation System at the Rokkasho Reprocessing Plant

The Rokkasho Reprocessing Plant (RRP) poses a challenge to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) because of the form and quantity of safeguarded material at this commercial reprocessing facility. To assist in meeting the challenge of safeguarding this facility, the IAEA has worked with the Japan Safeguards Office (JSGO) and the Japanese Nuclear Material Control Center (NMCC) to develop an integrated Data Collection and Evaluation (DC&E) system for inspection. The DC&E system collects data from unattended measurement and monitoring systems distributed throughout the plant. Data from these systems are then forwarded to a centralized Raw Database that then delivers the data to the IAEA and JSGO evaluation systems. The IAEA developed the Integrated Inspector Information System (I3S) to assist inspector evaluation of the RRP safeguards data. The I3S manages, archives and monitors the large volumes of data generated by the DC&E; and reduces the inspection effort by automating many of the evaluation and reporting tasks. The DC&E includes more than 50 measuring and monitoring systems. While each of these unattended measurement systems was tested individually during installation, the system level behavior and robustness had not been tested. Prior to the start of active testing, a full-scale system level test was performed. The purpose of this DC&E system test was to: 1) establish a baseline to measure future performance against; 2) test the system level integration; and 3) test the fault tolerance and robustness of the system. This paper provides a high-level description of the DC&E system and describes the system test performed on it. The system test discussion includes: • the test goals; • the system test details; • the lessons learned; • the applicability of the integrated DC&E system and lessons learned to other large safeguarded facilities.