Diversion scenarios in an aqueous reprocessing facility

Abstract

The International Atomic Energy Agency requires nuclear facilities around the world to abide by heavily enforced safeguards to prevent proliferation. Nuclear fuel reprocessing facilities are designed to be proliferation-resistant and to use surveillance systems. While experience with small-scale reprocessing facilities has allowed for well understood safeguards, large-scale reprocessing facilities pose a new difficulty because of the larger error margins involved with the large volumes of spent fuel that is being processed. First, a hypothetical spent nuclear fuel reprocessing facility is described along with proliferation resistance methods typically used in actual facilities. This model establishes a foundation for studying diversion scenarios using a success tree method.