Isotope Transmutation for Radioactive Waste Minimisation

摘要

1. Partitioning and Transmutation (P/T) and its role: A wide literature has been devoted to the characteristics and role of P/T (see among others, Ref. 1) related to the management of spent fuel from nuclear power plants. Most of the hazard from the spent fuel stems from only a few chemical elements - plutonium, neptunium, americium, curium, and some long-lived fission products such as iodine and technetium at concentration levels of grams per ton. At present approximately 2500 tons of spent fuel are produced annually in the EU, containing about 25 tons of plutonium and 3.5 tons of the "minor actinides" neptunium, americium, and curium and 3 tons of long-lived fission products (out of a total of about 100 t of fission products). In the case of Germany, the present production is of about 340 tons/y of spent fuel, containing about 4 tons of Pu, about 0.6 tons of minor actinides and 0.5 tons of long-lived fission products (FP). In the case of Germany, the inventory expected in 2022 is approximately ~ 130 t of Pu and ~ 35 t of so-called Minor Actinides. In figure 1, the content of a typical spent fuel from a PWR, is shown.