Releases from exotic waste packages from partitioning and transmutation

Conference · Sat Oct 31 23:00:00 EST 1992

OSTI ID:140839

Lee, W W.L.; Choi, J S ^[1]

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1. Lawrence Livermore National Lab., Univ. of California, Livermore, CA (US)

This paper reports that partitioning the actinides in spent nuclear fuel and transmuting them in actinide-burning liquid-metal reactors has been proposed as a potential method of reducing the public risks from geologic disposal of nuclear waste. To quantify the benefits for waste disposal of actinide burning, the authors calculate the release rates of key radionuclides form waste packages resulting from actinide burning, and compare them with release rates from LWR spent fuel designed for disposal at the potential repository at Yucca Mountain. The wet-drip water-contact mode has been used. Analytic methods and parameter values are very similar to those used for assessing Yucca Mountain as a potential repository. Once released, the transport characteristics of radionuclides will be largely determined by site geology. For the most important nuclides such as I-129 and Tc-99, which are undiminished by actinide-burning reactors, it is not surprising that actinide burning offers little reduction in releases. For important actinides such as Np-237 and Pu isotopes, which are reduced in inventory, the releases are not reduced because the release rates are proportional to solubility, rather than inventory.

• OSTI ID: 140839
• Report Number(s): CONF-920430--; ISBN 0-87262-891-4
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

05 NUCLEAR FUELS
ACTINIDES
CALCULATION METHODS
ENVIRONMENTAL TRANSPORT
HIGH-LEVEL RADIOACTIVE WASTES
LEACHING
NEPTUNIUM 237
PLUTONIUM ISOTOPES
PUBLIC HEALTH
RADIOACTIVE EFFLUENTS
RADIOACTIVE WASTE DISPOSAL
RADIOACTIVE WASTE FACILITIES
RADIOACTIVE WASTE PROCESSING
RADIONUCLIDE MIGRATION
RISK ASSESSMENT
SEPARATION PROCESSES
SITE CHARACTERIZATION
SOLUBILITY
SPENT FUEL CASKS
TRANSMUTATION
YUCCA MOUNTAIN
Yucca Mountain Project