[en] This paper shall recall the framework for the application of international safeguards in the 5 Nuclear Weapons States and give an overview on their implementation. It shall then discuss some reasons for an evolution of those States and IAEA's commitments to apply its safeguards and suggest some ideas for an increased but efficient involvement of IAEA in those States fully taking into account the specificities of those States within the State Level Approach. (author)

[en] Continued safe, reliable, and economic operation of the current fleet of power plants is an important enabler to the nuclear renaissance. Westinghouse products and services continue to support this goal with a clear commitment to operational excellence, technology and growth initiatives. With core management evolution in recent years pushing fuel duties to higher levels, Westinghouse introduced advanced fuel products to meet more demanding operating requirements while maintaining a high level of fuel reliability. The advanced alloy ZIRLOTM has performed consistently and predictably enabling fuel cycle extensions and power up-ratings required by customers worldwide. With Westinghouse AP1000^TM technology uniquely positioned to serve the nuclear renaissance demand, Westinghouse is also investing in people, processes, and facilities to support this growth, while continuing to meet our customers' requirements for their operating plants. (author)

[en] The fabrication of TRU containing fuel materials requires the development of new fabrication technologies because it is difficult to handle the highly radioactive TRUs by the traditional fuel fabrication process. In this paper, we propose sintering process of ceramic fuels by high-frequency induction heating. The specific housing apparatus was made and used as a pre-heater in order to directly induce the electric current on the ceramic specimens. When the heating rate and sample dimension were properly controlled, ceramic nuclear fuel pellets with a density of more than 95% TD could be produced within a few minutes. Induction heating process is simple, clean, energy-efficient and compatible with hot-cell technology so that it can be a potential candidate process for the rapid fabrication of TRU containing radioactive nuclear fuel materials. (authors)

[en] The activity of a radwaste package is usually evaluated from gamma measurements associated with transfer functions. These functions are calculated assuming that both activity and mass distributions are homogeneous. But generally, activity and mass distributions are not homogeneous, leading to huge possible errors. We propose a method for creating a numeric model for mass and activity distributions, adjusting and justifying the representativeness of this model, so that, on a first hand the uncertainty due to non homogeneous distributions may be evaluated, and, on a second hand, this uncertainty may be reduced. Uncertainties as low as ±30 % may be obtained. We demonstrate that it is possible to simulate even complex geometries, like metallic scraps in a tangle. We show 2 examples of application of this method to acquisition data obtained from field experiment. (authors)

[en] At present only Purex process is industrial for reprocessing of spent fuel. This process has some disadvantages: long-term exposition of spent fuel before reprocessing, large quantity if liquid HLW, application of fire risk reagents, radiolysis of solvent and etc. Cardinal decision of these problems is application of 'dry' methods of reprocessing. Here are presented results of check for two elements of suggested pyrochemical scheme for spent fuel reprocessing: production of ceramic grade plutonium dioxide and fabrication of experimental batches of MOX- and PuO₂-pellets. (authors)

[en] Extraction of radionuclides using complexing agent solutions in supercritical fluids or compressed gases is a promising low-waste technology for fabric deactivation. As compared to the common treatment with aqueous solutions this procedure allows to: - decrease the volume of secondary liquid radioactive wastes by a factor of about 50; - provide both deactivation and disinfection of fabrics. At present, both the technology of deactivation in supercritical fluids and appropriate equipment are developed in Great Britain, France, the USA, Japan, and Russia. It should be noted that safe operation of supercritical technologies requires rather expensive equipment. The effectiveness of fabric deactivation in compressed gasses and perchloroethylene attained in this work is comparable with the effectiveness of deactivation using aqueous solutions. (authors)

[en] 6 March 2009 was the Phenix reactor's last day of industrial production before being deliberately shut down. This article highlights the main scientific knowledge acquired in areas as varied as materials, sodium technology, fuel, safety, inspection and repair capabilities, core physics and so on, during the 35 years in operation. The article is also a reminder of the contributions made to the systems of the future by this global demonstration, including the back end of the cycle, breeding operating options and, more recently, actinide transmutation test campaigns. (authors)

[en] For over 20 years CANBERRA has developed systems for waste characterization. Now as AREVA nuclear measurement Business Unit, CANBERRA offers a large range of products and systems to measure and characterize all types of waste, from very low level to very high level waste activities. The aim of this paper is to describe the design principles of such systems depending on process data available, constraints on installation, and type of waste to be characterized. In the first part, the different techniques of waste characterization are listed from gamma and neutron counting to gamma spectrometry, and the different active interrogation. In the second part, we address the problems which are associated to different situations depending on the type of waste (geometry of the waste, matrix, type of radionuclide present) and the hypothesis that can be carried out with regards to the waste (homogeneity, ratio between radionuclides) In the third part, we synthesise the adequacy between the real needs and the methodology according to the hypotheses and the constraints for each type of waste. (authors)

[en] The United States Department of Energy's Advanced Fuel Cycle Initiative (AFCI) is performing research and development activities to enable future recycle of used nuclear fuel. Critical elements of this program include development and demonstration of used fuel separation technologies and suitable waste forms. The AFCI program is currently developing aqueous and electrochemical separation technologies, to provide technical options for recycle of used fuel into LWR and fast reactors. Waste forms are being developed to immobilize the waste fractions resulting from the separations processes. Program emphasis has recently focused on development of technologies that are cost effective and implementable at large-scale. An overview of the evolution of the separations and waste form program strategy will be discussed, as well as recent technical accomplishments in the program. (authors)

[en] An experts working group was created in 2002 by The Generation IV International Forum for the purpose of developing an internationally accepted methodology for assessing the proliferation resistance of a nuclear energy system (NES) and its individual elements. A two year case study was performed by the working group using this methodology to assess the proliferation resistance of a hypothetical NES called the Example Sodium Fast Reactor (ESFR). This work demonstrates how the PR and PP methodology can be used to provide important information to designers at various levels of details, including pre-conceptual design stage. The study analyzes the response of the ESFR entire nuclear energy system to different proliferation and theft strategies. The challenges considered comprise concealed diversion, concealed misuse and abrogation strategies. This paper describes the work done in performing a qualitative assessment of potential concealed diversion scenarios from the ESFR, and includes an evaluation of the potential effect of changes in the conversion ratio on diversion strategies. (authors)