Earth Observation for Monitoring of Various Stages of the Nuclear Fuel Cycle
Chamberland, Joseph¹; Alasset, Pierre-Jean¹; Garrett, Parsons¹; Peter, Button^2
1C-CORE, CANADA; ²CNSC, CANADA

Under the European Space Agencies' (ESA) Value Added Element (VAE) Earth Observation (EO) Envelope Programme, and past collaborations with the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, C-CORE has been developing EO products and services for continuous monitoring of the nuclear fuel cycle (NFC) for nuclear safety agencies. These nuclear safety agencies are often required to develop monitoring plans to ensure proper usage and disposal of nuclear materials according to international treaties. As such, the situational awareness provided by EO sensors and derived products is fundamental in the analysis and decision loop required by these agencies and their inspector.

This presentation will introduce the different phases of the NFC and discuss how EO data and products play a role in monitoring this cycle to ensure proper use, storage and disposal of nuclear material. Different EO sensors are required to monitor the diverse set of activities which include: mining the nuclear fuel, enriching the fuel for power generation, the actual power generation and the disposal and long term storage of spent fuel. The second part of the presentation will demonstrate some of the more innovative products developed under the VAE project, and show how future Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) missions can play a complimentary, yet important role in any NFC monitoring plan.