Scope

Under the guidance of the Nuclear Science Committee (NSC), the Task Force on Demonstration of Fuel Cycle Closure including Partitioning and Transmutation (P&T) for Industrial Readiness by 2050 (TF-FCPT) covers different existing and emerging technologies for advanced and innovative transuranic (TRU) management strategies – e.g. plutonium multi-recycling and minor actinide transmutation – in the following areas:

• Advanced separation technologies for used fuels from Gen II-III light-water reactors;
• Advanced fuel fabrication and performance;
• Transmutation systems (liquid metal fast reactors, accelerator-driven systems, molten salt reactors);
• Reprocessing of advanced fuel;
• Advanced fuel technological aspects (including transportation, cooling and handling).

Objectives

The main goal of the Task Force FCPT is to produce a report which will provide a comprehensive reference on technological, economic and societal aspects of fuel cycle closure including P&T.

The main objectives include:

• To stress the need and the urgency to increase the Technology Readiness Level (TRL) in advanced fuel cycles and P&T technologies to move from research and development (R&D) to pre-industrial scale demonstration;
• To identify R&D and infrastructure needs and gaps and provide recommendations on priority actions to be implemented;
• To provide policymakers with information for future decisions to enable the industrialisation of fuel cycle closure from 2050 onwards;
• To provide the drivers for joint projects on the experimental demonstration of the fuel cycle closure.

In addition to the report, the Task Force intends to establish a library of published documents addressing the benefits of P&T, the technical challenges and developments in the field. 

Interactions

The Task Force liaises closely with the NSC Working Party on Scientific Issues of Advanced Fuel Cycles (WPFC), the Committee for Technical and Economic Studies on Nuclear Energy Development and the Fuel Cycle (NDC) and the Generation-IV International Forum (GIF).