Analysis of the nuclear fuel cycle in European Community countries up to the year 2000 ESARDA point of view

The use of nuclear energy for electricity production has substantially increased during the past years, and present day projections indicate a further increase for the next decade. The presently available safeguards technology satisfies the actual needs but the projected evolution of the nuclear fuel cycle is expected to pose new technical challenges. Experience has taught that much time elapses between the development of safeguard techniques and the routine field application. Therefore it appears reasonable to consider long term trends of RandD activities in the light of the described fuel cycle evolution. ESARDA has made a first step in this direction by making a fuel cycle analysis up to the year 2000, which should provide the orientation for RandD in the future. In May 1988, the seven ESARDA working groups met at Karlsruhe to address this theme and to analyse the safeguards relevant features of the future fuel cycle within the European Community (EC) countries and how they influence the further development of presently available techniques in the field of measurements, containment and surveillance (C/S), data evaluation, etc. The preliminary results of this meeting are presented in the paper