Safeguards-by-Design (SBD) is a new approach to the design and construction of nuclear facilities in which nuclear safeguards provisions and features are designed into the facility from the very beginning of the design process. It is a systematic and structured approach for fully integrating international and national safeguards (MC&A), physical protection, and other barriers into the design and construction process for nuclear facilities, while integrating with safety and other project considerations. Because the successful implementation of SBD is primarily a project management and coordination challenge, this report focuses on that aspect.To improve the implementation of nuclear safeguards worldwide, the United States National Nuclear Security Administration's (NNSA's) Office of International Regimes and Agreements (NA-243) commissioned a U.S. DOE National Laboratory project team to study how SBD could be implemented. This is in support of the NNSA Next Generation Safeguards Initiative (NGSI). The long term objective is to promote the global implementation of SBD so that new nuclear facilities will be designed with nuclear safeguards, safety, and physical protection features incorporated into the facility. This will make new nuclear facilities safer, more secure, and more easily safeguarded. In addressing these issues early in the design stage, it will also be more cost effective, by avoiding the costly retrofits to accommodate these requirements after the facility starts up.In 2008, the SBD project team developed a high-level framework for institutionalizing SBD. As a result, the establishment of SBD as a global standard was found to depend on three pillars: 1) Requirements Definition, including the definition of requirements and criteria for successful safeguards performance, 2) Design Processes, including project management and coordination, and 3) Design Toolkit, including the technology and methodology used in the design and assessment of performance against requirements. These in turn were seen as resting on the foundation of Institutionalization, including education, outreach, training, and standardization. Each of these areas is vital to successfully establish SBD as a global standard.The present report continues the work begun in 2008 and focuses on the design and construction process -specifically, project management and coordination. This includes project planning, definition, organization, coordination, scheduling, communication and interaction between the domestic and international safeguards authorities, facility builders, owner/operators, and other stakeholders during the design and construction of a nuclear facility. It further specifies the stages in an ideal nuclear facility design and construction project and identifies: 1) When safeguards design activities take place, 2) When safeguards stakeholders should be involved, 3) The interaction between safeguards requirements, analysis, and decision making relevant to plant design, and 4) The documents for recording this process, analysis, and de...
Cover photograph of uranium gas centrifuge enrichment plant (Schanfein, 2008). The design of modern uranium gas centrifuge enrichment plants will benefit from application of the Safeguards-by-Design process. DISCLAIMERThis information was prepared as an account of work sponsored by an agency of the U.S. Government. Neither the U.S. Government nor any agency thereof, nor any of their employees, makes any warranty, expressed or implied, or assumes any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness, of any information, apparatus, product, or process disclosed, or represents that its use would not infringe privately owned rights. References herein to any specific commercial product, process, or service by trade name, trade mark, manufacturer, or otherwise, does not necessarily constitute or imply its endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by the U.S. Government or any agency thereof. The views and opinions of authors expressed herein do not necessarily state or reflect those of the U.S. Government or any agency thereof. INL/EXT-14777Revision 1Institutionalizing Safeguards-by-Design: High-level Framework EXECUTIVE SUMMARYThe application of a Safeguards-by-Design (SBD) process for new nuclear facilities has the potential to reduce proliferation risks as the use of nuclear energy expands worldwide. To this end a multilaboratory team was sponsored in Fiscal Year 2008 to define a SBD process and determine how it could be incorporated into existing facility design and construction processes. The result could ultimately help form the basis for a new international norm for integrating international safeguards into facility design. This effort is a component of the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Next Generation Safeguards Initiative (NGSI) and is jointly sponsored by the Office of Nonproliferation and International Security (NA-24) and the Office of Nuclear Energy. This is an interim report describing progress and project status as of the end of FY08.Safeguards-by-Design means different things to different people. In this effort SBD is defined as a structured approach to ensure the timely, efficient and cost effective integration of international and national safeguards, physical security and potentially other nonproliferation objectives into the overall design process for a nuclear facility, from initial planning through design, construction and operation. A key objective is to ensure that security and nonproliferation issues are considered along with safety and other factors when weighing facility design alternatives.The Institutionalizing Safeguards-by-Design (ISBD) team examined facility design processes, best practices and lessons learned from previous facility projects, developments in nuclear safety, and project and systems engineering, in order to identify the essential elements of SBD and a framework for its implementation. Historically, safeguards issues have been deferred until late in the design and construction process, resulting in added costs, and schedule and operational...
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