Initial Safeguards Considerations for the Safeguards by Design of a New Bulk Handling Facility.

Safeguards-by-design is defined as the consideration of safeguards throughout the lifetime of a facility, from conceptual design to decommissioning. One of the aims of Sellafield Limited’s Safe Storage of Plutonium Strategy, is to consolidate storage of the Plutonium product and residues into modern facilities for long term storage. Nuclear material stored in new facilities must meet the requirements for long-term safe and secure storage and much of the historic product will require retreating and / or repackaging into new and appropriate substantiated packages in order to meet the requirements for long term storage. A new bulk handling facility is currently being designed for this purpose. At the time of writing the facility is in preliminary design phase; design work began in 2012 and is ongoing. The facility is scheduled to begin construction activities in 2020 with active commissioning scheduled for 2025. Although safeguards-by-design is at an early stage and has not yet introduced any new safeguards requirements to the project, it has presented an opportunity for Sellafield Limited to engage voluntarily with Euratom earlier than legally required with the aim of reducing project risk. In order to ensure the implementation of a safeguards approach that is efficient and effective for both the inspectorate and operator, it is in the interest of both Sellafield Limited and it’s regulators to cooperate in terms of enhancing understanding of the facility capability and its suitability for safeguards implementation. This paper describes the initial safeguards considerations and the application of safeguards-by- design commencing at the conceptual design stage. In order to meet safeguards requirements, a close dialogue has been established between the various interested parties and early contact at the design stage has facilitated the inclusion of safeguards considerations into the overall design.