New safeguards tool bolsters IAEA's verification of spent nuclear fuel (French Edition)

For all States with a comprehensive safeguards agreement in force, the IAEA seeks to verify that all nuclear material remains in peaceful activities. It achieves this through the application of technical measures known as safeguards. The new passive gamma emission tomography (PGET) tool will enable the IAEA to verify the number of fuel rods — or pins — in spent nuclear fuel assemblies. Unlike other tools used for verifying the content of spent nuclear fuel, such as the digital Cerenkov viewing device and the spent fuel attribute tester, the PGET tool can also confirm the absence of missing pins from a spent fuel assembly in a closed container. This is very useful for applying safeguards at nuclear power plants, underwater storage facilities and encapsulation plants at geological repositories.