Remote monitoring and secure communication technologies assist organizations developing nuclear energy by demonstrating compliance with international nonproliferation agreements.Additionally,remote monitoring can improve nonproliferation cooperation and confidence among neighboring countries and international partners in the nuclear fuel cycle.The remote monitoring transparency collaboration described in this paper involves the Japan Atomic Energy Agency(JAEA) and Sandia National Laboratories(SNL),with observation by the International Atomic Energy Agency(IAEA).The test site is the fresh fuel storage room at JAEA’s Joyo experimental fast reactor in O’arai,Japan.Project partners extend active outreach to other regional nuclear entities,thereby building regional relationships,transparency,and cooperation.This paper describes technical developments applicable for remote monitoring and regional transparency,and summarizes recent operating and reliability experience at Joyo.Pragmatic efforts leading toward regional cooperation on transparency also are discussed.The concept of transparency supplements international safeguards.Its value lies in developing and improving mutual trust regarding nonproliferation activities.Using their own data review methods and software to conduct independent assessments of shared information,the participating parties can reach their own conclusions regarding the consistency of activities and the transparency of regional partners.To promote the concept of a network for regional transparency,the project conducts regional workshops on remote monitoring technical activities;appropriate technology selection,demonstration,and uses; and development of regional views and applications.In addition,a newly developed, remote monitoring transparency website provides general information,and remote data viewing,communications,and information sharing for authorized participants.The current remote monitoring system includes a DCM digital camera,balanced magnetic switch,and secure communications over the Internet via a virtual private network(VPN)system. Recent technical upgrades focus on configuring secure internet access to facilitate remote review of monitoring data,adding wireless data transfer within the facility,and developing a website to share approved monitoring information.The upgrades streamline and improve monitoring operations,hardware,software administration,and security.These enhancements make the system more reliable,provide a suitable test bed for new remote monitoring and transparency technology,and create a dependable and credible platform usable for future transparency cooperation with other regional partners.
展开▼
