Review of Blockchain-Based Approaches to Spent Fuel Management in Nuclear Power Plants

TL;DR

This paper proposes a blockchain and IoT-based system to improve transparency, data integrity, and safety in spent nuclear fuel transportation, addressing confidentiality and trust issues in traditional management methods.

Contribution

It introduces a multi-tiered blockchain-IoT framework that enhances data immutability, real-time monitoring, and stakeholder access control in nuclear fuel logistics.

Findings

Enhanced data immutability and security

Real-time multi-sensor data integration

Improved transparency and resilience

Abstract

This study addresses critical challenges in managing the transportation of spent nuclear fuel, including inadequate data transparency, stringent confidentiality requirements, and a lack of trust among collaborating parties, issues prevalent in traditional centralized management systems. Given the high risks involved, balancing data confidentiality with regulatory transparency is imperative. To overcome these limitations, a prototype system integrating blockchain technology and the Internet of Things (IoT) is proposed, featuring a multi-tiered consortium chain architecture. This system utilizes IoT sensors for real-time data collection, which is immutably recorded on the blockchain, while a hierarchical data structure (operational, supervisory, and public layers) manages access for diverse stakeholders. The results demonstrate that this approach significantly enhances data immutability, enables real-time multi-sensor data integration, improves decentralized transparency, and increases resilience compared to traditional systems. Ultimately, this blockchain-IoT framework improves the safety, transparency, and efficiency of spent fuel transportation, effectively resolving the conflict between confidentiality and transparency in nuclear data management and offering significant practical implications.