Spent Fuel Measurement Methods for IAEA Safeguards – Report on Coordinated Technical Meeting on Spent Fuel Verification Methods

Verification of spent-fuel materials in wet and dry storage areas continues to be of key interest to the International Atomic Energy Agency. The Agency still lacks effective methods for measuring and reverifying spent-fuel materials particularly when there has been a containment and surveillance failure that results in a loss of continuity of knowledge. The situation has become more critical because of enhanced safeguards criteria that have been adapted for verifying spent fuel and, more recently, because of efforts to define and incorporate an Integrated Safeguards regime. On 3-6 March 2003, a meeting on spent fuel verification methods was held in Vienna. The objective of the meeting was to bring together a group of technical experts to survey and evaluate the status of current and potential spent-fuel measurement methods and then recommend a clear path that should be followed by the Agency in its quest for effective verification of spent-fuel materials in wet and dry storage configurations. In determining a course of action, various factors, including effectiveness in satisfying Agency goals, equipment and operational costs, impact and intrusiveness of measurements on the operator, measurement time, precision and reproducibility of the results, dependence on operator information, and complexity of the equipment were considered. Meeting attendees carefully examined the Agency’s needs and thoughtfully considered the impact of various constraints in making recommendations. This paper summarizes results of the meeting and discusses the recommendations made by the panel of experts.