Disposition of Nuclear Waste Using Subcritical Accelerator-Driven Systems: Technology Choices and Implementation Scenarios

Journal Article · Sun Oct 15 04:00:00 EDT 2000 · Nuclear Technology

OSTI ID:20822201

Venneri, Francesco; Williamson, Mark A; Ning, Li; Houts, Michael G; Morley, Richard A; Beller, Denis E; Sailor, William; Lawrence, George ^[1]

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1. Los Alamos National Laboratory (United States)

Los Alamos National Laboratory has led the development of accelerator-driven transmutation of waste (ATW) to provide an alternative technological solution to the disposition of nuclear waste. While ATW will not eliminate the need for a high-level waste repository, it offers a new technology option for altering the nature of nuclear waste and enhancing the capability of a repository. The basic concept of ATW focuses on reducing the time horizon for the radiological risk from hundreds of thousands of years to a few hundred years and on reducing the thermal loading. As such, ATW will greatly reduce the amount of transuranic elements that will be disposed of in a high-level waste repository. The goal of the ATW nuclear subsystem is to produce three orders of magnitude reduction in the long-term radiotoxicity of the waste sent to a repository, including losses through processing. If the goal is met, the radiotoxicity of ATW-treated waste after 300 yr would be less than that of untreated waste after 100 000 yr.These objectives can be achieved through the use of high neutron fluxes produced in accelerator-driven subcritical systems. While critical fission reactors can produce high neutron fluxes to destroy actinides and select fission products, the effectiveness of the destruction is limited by the criticality requirement. Furthermore, a substantial amount of excess reactivity would have to be supplied initially and compensated for by control poisons. To overcome these intrinsic limitations, we searched for solutions in subcritical systems freed from the criticality requirement by taking advantage of the recent breakthroughs in accelerator technology and the release of liquid lead/bismuth nuclear coolant technology from Russia. The effort led to the selection of an accelerator-driven subcritical system that results in the destruction of the actinides and fission products of concern as well as permitting easy operational control through the external control of the neutron source.

• OSTI ID: 20822201
• Journal Information: Nuclear Technology, Journal Name: Nuclear Technology Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 132; ISSN 0029-5450; ISSN NUTYBB
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE WASTES FROM NUCLEAR FACILITIES
ACCELERATOR DRIVEN TRANSMUTATION
ACCELERATORS
ACTINIDES
BISMUTH
CONTROL
COOLANTS
CRITICALITY
FISSION PRODUCTS
HIGH-LEVEL RADIOACTIVE WASTES
IMPLEMENTATION
LEAD
LIQUIDS
NEUTRON FLUX
NEUTRON SOURCES
REACTIVITY
SOLUTIONS