Historical Role of the Tokai Reprocessing Plant in the Establishment of Safeguards Technologies

This paper describes the role of the Tokai Reprocessing Plant(TRP) in the development of safeguards technologies (SG) byJapan and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) andthe application of the technologies to the first large-scale commercialnuclear fuel reprocessing plant in Rokkasho, Japan.Negotiations between Japan and the United States led toTRP accepting: a complete application of the IAEA’s SG technologies;development of the U-Pu mixed conversion process;and experimental work of IAEA for development of SG activities.Results under the Tokai Advanced Safeguards TechnologyExercise (TASTEX), which was a research and developmentprogram agreed upon during the Japan-U.S. negotiations onreprocessing, were reflected in the International Fuel CycleEvaluation, which was established by the change in U.S. nuclearenergy policy. Most of the current SG technologies being appliedby IAEA now were developed at this time. Both effectiveness andreliability of such technologies have been validated extensivelythrough the 30 years of operation of TRP.