Under the guidance of the Nuclear Science Committee (NSC) and the mandate of the Working Party on Scientific Issues of the Fuel Cycle (WPFC), the objective of the Task Force on Potential Benefits and Impacts of Advanced Fuel Cycles with Partitioning and Transmutation (TFPT) is to conduct a comparative analysis studies performed in several international laboratories on the impact of advanced fuel cycles including partitioning and transmutation (P&T) on geological repository performance. This analysis should assess the impact on geological repository performances and characteristics, and indicate possible goals for future studies and draft recommendations on the appropriate criteria to evaluate the P&T impact, on the level of losses at fuel processing, etc. This study could help promote a better collaboration with the geological disposal community.
It has been argued that advanced fuel cycles with P&T can offer significant potential benefits to a deep geological storage. Typically:
Regarding the first point (i.e. radiotoxicity reduction), while P&T will not replace the need for appropriate geological disposal of high-level waste, current studies indicate that different P&T strategies could significantly reduce the long-term radiotoxicity. In principle a reduction down to the level of the initial uranium ore used for nuclear fuel fabrication can be achieved within several hundred years, if transuranium elements (TRU) are separated from spent fuel and if the losses of TRU over all reprocessing steps are kept very low.
As for the second point (i.e. heat load reduction), generally, high level radioactive waste arising from advanced fuel cycle scenarios associated with P&T, generate less heat than LWR spent fuel. In case of disposal in hard rock, clay and tuff formations the maximum allowable disposal density (determined by thermal limitations) can be favourably affected.
Several impact studies have been performed in the last few years that have underlined the role of radiotoxicity or heat load and their potential reduction. The Task Force will investigate motivations, hypotheses and context of the different impact studies, as well as analyse requirements, risks, objectives and criteria for P&T with respect to geological disposal and the relevant nuclear development scenarios. The analysis of the results obtained in previous studies in different international laboratories will provide a deeper mutual understanding, e.g. on the role of long-lived fission products, cooling times and impact on Am build-up, strategies for Cs and Sr, level of losses at fuel processing etc. The outcome of the study can be used to guide development of appropriate P&T strategies in favourable combination with geologic disposal.
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Working Party on Scientific Issues of the Fuel Cycle (WPFC)
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For more information on this working party, please contact Yong-Joon CHOI (Tel: +33 1 45 24 10 91, yongjoon.choi@oecd.org)
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