Spent nuclear fuel from nuclear power plants requires long-term safeguarding during interim storage and final disposal. Current safeguards combine accountancy, containment, and monitoring. As spent nuclear fuel emits antineutrinos due to radioactive beta decay, the detection of these antineutrino emissions has the potential to provide complementary information. This study compares several antineutrino detection technologies to evaluate their suitability for safeguarding spent nuclear fuel.

Muon radiography is a technique that harnesses naturally occurring cosmic radiation to non-invasively image an object of interest. Most famously used to search for hidden chambers oin pyramids, the technique has many similarities to that of medical X-ray and can return detailed density maps of the object of interest. We propose the application of muon radiography to multiple aspects of the long-term monitoring and disposal of nuclear waste.

The presentation will introduce the objectives of international nuclear material safeguards for the final disposal of spent nuclear fuel, highlight the current status of developments and discussions in terms of approaches and technologies for safeguarding spent fuel encapsulation and geological repository facilities, and give an outlook on implementing safeguards for final disposal in Germany.