ATW system impact on high-level waste
This report discusses the Accelerator Transmutation of Waste (ATW) concept which aims at destruction of key long-lived radionuclides in high-level nuclear waste (HLW), both fission products and actinides. This focus makes it different from most other transmutation concepts which concentrate primarily on actinide burning. The ATW system uses an accelerator-driven, sub-critical assembly to create an intense thermal neutron environment for radionuclide transmutation. This feature allows rapid transmutation under low-inventory system conditions, which in turn, has a direct impact on the size of chemical separations and materials handling components of the system. Inventories in ATW are factors of eight to thirty times smaller than reactor systems of equivalent thermal power. Chemical separations systems are relatively small in scale and can be optimized to achieve high decontamination factors and minimized waste streams. The low-inventory feature also directly impacts material amounts remaining in the system at its end of life. In addition to its low-inventory operation, the accelerator-driven neutron source features of ATW are key to providing a sufficient level of neutrons to allow transmutation of long-lived fission products.
- Research Organization:
- Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE; USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- W-7405-ENG-36
- OSTI ID:
- 6745317
- Report Number(s):
- LA-UR-92-3375; CONF-930408-6; ON: DE93003730
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: International high-level radioactive waste management conference, Las Vegas, NV (United States), 25-29 Apr 1993
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Technologies for destruction of long-lived radionuclides in high-level nuclear waste - overview and requirements
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Related Subjects
HIGH-LEVEL RADIOACTIVE WASTES
TRANSMUTATION
ACCELERATORS
ACTINIDE BURNER REACTORS
LMFBR TYPE REACTORS
RADIOACTIVE WASTE MANAGEMENT
THERMAL NEUTRONS
WATER COOLED REACTORS
BARYONS
BREEDER REACTORS
ELEMENTARY PARTICLES
EPITHERMAL REACTORS
FAST REACTORS
FBR TYPE REACTORS
FERMIONS
HADRONS
LIQUID METAL COOLED REACTORS
MANAGEMENT
MATERIALS
NEUTRONS
NUCLEONS
RADIOACTIVE MATERIALS
RADIOACTIVE WASTES
REACTORS
WASTE MANAGEMENT
WASTES
052001* - Nuclear Fuels- Waste Processing