Safeguards concepts for an ultimate storage facility envisaged within the framework of alternative spent fuel management concepts

Safeguards concepts for the direct final storage of spent fuel in an unexploited salt dome are worked out and evaluated. The considerations are based on a PWR standard fuel element of the Biblis B type with a burn-up of 40.000 MWd/t SM, with an initial enrichment of 3.6%. Many problems are encountered which cannot be solved immediately with the currently available knowledge. Four approaches are explained. A comparison of the main non-proliferation aspects of direct final storage or reprocessing reveals advantages of waste management strategies including reprocessing. In the eight of the facts and results established the conclusion is to be drawn that the waste management strategy with direct final storage is somewhat problematic, from the safeguards point of view, because the technical realisation of a safeguards concept is questionable. For certain types of fuel elements for which reprocessing is not worthwhile, Article 35 of the Verification Agreement may offer a solution. For this case of the limited storage of spent fuel elements, an international central in accordance with this article could be agreed upon. (orig./HP)