INTERNATIONAL NUCLEAR MATERIAL SAFEGUARDS FOR THE DIRECT FINAL DISPOSAL OF SPENT-FUEL ASSEMBLIES

One of the two German spent-fuel management options envisages the dire ct (i. e., no reprocessing) final disposal of spent-fuel assemblies fr om nuclear reactors in a geological repository. The reference reposito ry will be located in a salt dome. The spent fuel will become inaccess ible immediately after its emplacement in drifts; and this rules out a retrieval of the nuclear material from the repository The Nuclear Non -Proliferation Treaty requires compliance verification by inspection r egimes, A safeguards approach has been developed for the German refere nce disposal concept, which would be applicable today and which would meet the requirements of the international Atomic Energy Agency Las we ll as the recommendations of the 1995 Consultants Meeting on Safeguard s for Geological Repositories, It foresees cask verification in the ab oveground area (material balance area I) and design information verifi cation in the above-ground and belowground (material balance area II) ar eas of the repository. Safeguards have to continue even after closu re and decommissioning of the repository mine.