The interaction of international safeguards with facility design

When designing a nuclear facility, international safeguards, like radiation protection or criticality control, represents only one of a large number of viewpoints that have to be considered. Moreover, it is difficult to establish an order of priority. This particularly applies if human safety is involved, but there are at least two more issues that decisively influence the safeguards concept. First, in the case of a commercial facility, economic efficiency must be considered if safeguards measures lead to additional costs. Second, the nature of the licensing procedure according to the German Atomic Act, together with the special nature of the Euratom Treaty regarding reprocessing, are fundamentally important. In addition, some national regulations are counterproductive to safeguards demands and vice versa. The problem is explained and investigated using the Wackersdorf Reprocessing Plant as an example for a commercial-sized bulk-handling facility