International safeguards aspects of spent fuel in permanent geological repositories

The practice of not reprocessing spent fuel (the once-through cycle) poses one of the requirements of spent fuel management. States which decide not to reprocess spent fuel for recovery of the contained plutonium intend to dispose of the fuel in a geologic repository after appropriate conditioning. Storage facilities at reactors and away-from-reactor facilities will be required for storing and cooling the fuel until suitable repositories are available. In several states, reprocessing of spent fuel is neither envisaged nor considered to be economical. Recent developments make the disposal of spent fuel in geologic repositories more attractive than previously believed, thus introducing new challenges to safeguards. The nuclear community has expressed concern about the pressing need to address issues of long-term safeguards for the disposal of spent fuel in geologic repositories. According to the authors, the IAEA must develop safeguards requirements and methodology for geologic disposal facilities for spent fuel and formulate a safeguards policy before such facilities enter into operation.