Lessons learned from safeguarding: a MOX fabrication plant during decommissioning

The paper describes the application of nuclear safeguards at the Siemens AG Power Generation Decommissioning Project, near Hanau in Germany. This installation was known as the 'Siemens Mixed Oxide (MOX) Fuel Fabrication Plant', formerly operated by Alkem. This was the first time that a plutonium bulk handling facility under Euratom safeguards was decommissioned in the EU and the first time European Commission and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) were involved in safeguarding the decommissioning of such an installation. The three parties concerned, Siemens, the IAEA and European Commission, closely co-operated to produce a practicable safeguards implementation scheme. The paper provides an introduction to the European Commission's safeguards system, it outlines the safeguards scheme implemented at the Hanau Siemens MOX plant and gives details of the experience gained from its application. In choosing the scheme, emphasis was put on satisfying the safeguards requirements and objectives of both organisations, with minimum impact on the resources of both the operator and the inspectorates. The lessons learned from the decommissioning safeguards implementation scheme will be useful for future applications in the light of the Commission's modernised safeguards approach, even in different facility types, but particularly in the future decommissioning of other MOX fabrication plants in the EU, such as the Belgonucleaire MOX plant. (author)