Kreutle, M. T.FZJ*

2024

Abstract: The challenges of designing long-term safeguards on civilian nuclear waste in underground repositories have some similarities to those of managing the monitored secure storage and disposal of nuclear weapon material recovered during weapon production processes and as part of a disarmament process. This presentation will present a model and software architecture designed for a digital twin of safeguards on civilian nuclear waste and ask how it may be adapted to be useful in a disarmament context. As examples, it will look at the safeguards on the disposal of spent nuclear fuel at the Onkalo repository in Finland, the disposal of highly-active nuclear waste in Germany in the Asse II and Morsleben mines, and the disposal of US defence-related nuclear waste in the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant. It also will discuss the safeguards implications of managing former nuclear weapons material based on the approach taken by the US-Russia Cooperative Threat Reduction program which highly enriched uranium from Soviet nuclear weapons was down-blended into low-enriched uranium for nuclear fuel, and long-term interim storage of nuclear weapons plutonium.

1. 1411 - Nuclear Waste Disposal (POF4-141) (POF4-141)
2. Neu- und Weiterentwicklung von Konzepten, Methoden und Techniken für die internationale Kernmaterialüberwachung, insbesondere im Rahmen der nuklearen Entsorgung (SAFEGUARDS-3) (02W6279) (02W6279)