Advanced separation processes for sustainable nuclear systems
- Commissariat a l'Energie Atomique DEN/VRH/DRCP, BP 17 171 30207 Bagnols/Ceze Cedex (France)
- Commissariat a l'Energie Atomique DEN/SAC/DDIN, 91191 Gif sur Yvette Cedex (France)
In the frame of the French national waste management 1991 act, the CEA had launched research and development studies on the separation of the minor actinides - i.e. neptunium, americium and curium - from high active waste issuing from nuclear spent fuel reprocessing. In compliance with the 2006 deadline specified by this act, tests of the main processes developed were realized in 2005 in ATALANTE. As shown by the results summarized in this paper, the feasibility of the processes selected for partitioning was demonstrated. In June 2006, a new act on sustainable management of radioactive waste has been voted by the French parliament with a national plan (PNG-MDR). This plan specifies a step by step programme of HLLL waste management, with, for partitioning-transmutation, a program in tight connection with the 4. generation reactors development in which transmutation of minor actinides could be operated. In this frame, the next important 2012 milestone is the evaluation of the two possible transmutation roads: homogeneous recycling of all the actinides together or minor actinides heterogeneous recycling in UO{sub 2} assemblies in core blankets. The last step could be the building of a small partitioning workshop (micro-pilot) dedicated to the production of fuel assemblies containing minor actinides. (authors)
- Research Organization:
- American Nuclear Society, 555 North Kensington Avenue, La Grange Park, IL 60526 (United States)
- OSTI ID:
- 20979591
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: Advanced nuclear fuel cycles and systems (GLOBAL 2007), Boise - Idaho (United States), 9-13 Sep 2007; Other Information: Country of input: France; 7 refs; Related Information: In: Proceedings of GLOBAL 2007 conference on advanced nuclear fuel cycles and systems, 1873 pages.
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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