Identification and Assessment of Threats for a Nuclear Fuel Fabrication Facility (NFFF)

In uranium fuel fabrication facilities, large amounts of radioactive material are present in a dispersible form. This is particularly so in the early stages of the fuel fabrication process. In addition, the radioactive material encountered exists in diverse chemical and physical forms and is used in conjunction with flammable or chemically reactive substances as part of the process. Thus, in these facilities, the main hazards are potential criticality and releases of uranium hexafluoride (UF6) and U3O8, from which workers, public and the environment should be protected. Nuclear facilities are vulnerable to terrorist attacks or thefts of nuclear material, especially for fissile materials which can be used for nuclear weapons. The physical protection system (PPS) performed in the NFFF against the unauthorized removal of nuclear material and against sabotage of nuclear material and nuclear fuel fabrication plant. This paper provides modification and assessment for the design of the PPS, which can provide high assurance of protection against the design-basis threat (DBT) to the prevention of insider and external threats. Different scenarios of attack also will be performed in this paper to identify the gaps and weak points of PPS. (author)