Safeguards inspections

The standard requires the supplier to safeguard inspection, measuring, and test facilities including both test hardware and test software from adjustments which would invalidate the calibration setting. 

The majority of the nuclear material samples, collected during safeguards inspections and sent to an analytical laboratory for measurements, serve several purposes, (i) They are taken to verify the correctness of declarations for the amounts of nuclear material (element (U, Pu, Th) and isotope amounts U)) in inventories and in transfers into or out of a facility,... 

Some of the NDA verification techniques on samples of nuclear material taken during a safeguards inspection are carried out at specialized analytical laboratories, for example, the Safeguards Analytical Laboratory (SAL) at Seibersdorf in Austria or the On-Site Laboratory (OSL) at the Rokkasho Reprocessing Plant in Japan. Commercially available and customer-specific equipment is used to determine amounts and isotopic compositions of plutonium and uranium in inspection samples, having various chemical and physical forms, to supplement or replace destructive analysis. A parallel analysis of one and the same sample by NDA and DA serves the quality assurance of the analytical methods and control of the results. 

Bulk Measurement, Sampling, Conditioning, and Shipment of Safeguards Inspection Sampies... 

Thermal ionization mass spectrometers (TIMS) with magnetic sector are thus the basic instruments for Pu and U isotopic analysis in safeguards inspection samples. The performance of commercial instruments has improved tremendously, particularly in the last 30 years, in terms of vacuum capability, design of the ionization source and detector assembly, stability of electrical supplies, sensitivity and linearity of ion current amplifiers, and includes full automatization of the measurement and data reduction. 

Canberra (1996), IMCA A Dedicated Instrument for Uranium Enrichment Measurements in Safeguards Inspections, Canberra Application note (available at http //www.canberra.com/literature/I048.asp). This note is followed by a number of useful references to programs for achieving isotopic analysis. 

The ultimate intention was to have a stockpile of 10 kg of tritium by 1970, with a production of 0.75 kg per year — the extra being needed for replacement as tritium deeays with a half-hfe of 12.4 years. Although tritium was received from the United States, some was also produced in the UK. A Ministry of Defence paper produced as part of the Government Strategic Defence Review of 1998 stated that The Chapelcross reactors are still used for producing tritium for nuclear weapons and are not subject to international safeguards inspection .The same paper also claimed that 6.7 kg of tritium were reeeived from the United States in exchange for plutonium. 

Attention should be given to specific nuclear materials accountancy and control procedures necessary to facilitate routine safeguards inspection activities. These will include ... 

Consider need for high/low temperature alarms for refrigerated storage these should be inspected and tested regularly. Consider need for mitigatory measures (fire, blast, fragment-resistant barricades/screens), electrical and electrostatic safeguards, personal protection, disposal etc. 

More formal inspections also verily the operation of safety and other controls such as low water and fuel cutoffs, level controls, fusible plugs, pressure gauges, water glasses, gage cocks, stop valves, safety/relief valves, and BD valves and lines. Also, FW pumps, flue and damper arrangements, combustion safeguards, name plate specifications, set pressures, boiler connections, floats, mercury switches, bellows, and other components may be inspected. 

Maintenance embraces regular inspection, periodic examination by competent persons , and repairs. All maintenance on equipment used with chemicals should be properly planned and recorded. Maintenance operations, particularly those which are non-routine, require a sound system of work with strict administrative procedures, e.g. permit-to-work, to avoid risks arising from modifications to established safe practices. A permit-to-work should be used wherever the method by which a job is done is likely to be critical to the safety of the workers involved, nearby workers, or the public it is required whenever the safeguards provided in normal operations are no longer available. Examples include ... 

Pneumatic testing of equipment should only be used when hydraulic testing is impracticable appropriate safeguards, e.g. pre-inspection, reduction of the internal gas space, pressure relief, and use of a blast pit or enclosure, are necessary. 

It is a truism, of course, that inspection and inspectors are not popular on the part of those being inspected. Nevertheless, by objective standards, it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that the financial costs and other burdens of safeguards, for complying nations, are at most quite modest. If the nuclear power produced by the some 200 reactors under safeguards is valued at 4 cents per kilowatt hour, its total value would be ofthe order of 50 billion annually. Agency safeguards costs of some 100 million annually would represent about 0.2% ofthis value, virtually within the noise level. Intrusiveness is a subjective... 

Following inspection, an inspection report shall be prepared. It must be made available to the sponsor while safeguarding confidential aspects. It may be made available to the other Member States, to the Ethics Committee and to the Agency, at their reasoned request. 

The available regulatory quantitative measures are published by the government agencies with the responsibility of safeguarding health and safety. The FDA was established in 1938, to inspect food for humans and animals, drugs, medical devices, and cosmetics. The EPA was established in 1970, to protect human health and the environment, with... 

The logistics of large phase 3a trials are extremely complicated and require considerable manpower in the headquarters and in the field. Full compliance to Good Clinical Practice (GCP) as well as scientific integrity are prerequisites for the acceptability of these trials to the regulatory authorities, and the pivotal trials undergo detailed inspection to safeguard these... 

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