An authentication and identification system of copper containers for spent nuclear fuel by means of an ultrasonic probe with a beam splitter

Geological repositories are planned to be used for the long-term storage of Swedish nuclear spent fuel. Copper canisters will preserve the fuel underground for thousands of years. The IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) and EURATOM safeguards approaches propose to use canisters identification to support the Continuity of Knowledge (CoK) from the encapsulation plant to the final repository [1]. The external marking of canisters is not foreseen to avoid future corrosion issues then other techniques have to be used as tags for nuclear waste casks. A method for canisters labelling has been already studied by the authors [2] and this paper continues the previous studies. The aim of this work is the development of an innovative, robust and reliable tagging system based on an ultrasound beam splitter, with two different time windows to discriminate internal identification cavities on the one hand and the authentication signal of the internal welding gap filling on the other hand.