Fast Reactors and Accelerator Driven Systems Knowledge Base

Conference Article: Reduction requirements for actinides with special regard to the isolation time at final disposal

Philippen, P.W. (Institute for Safety Research and Reactor Technology, Juelich (Germany))

Abstract

The additional knowledge acquired about the metabolism of the actinide elements, and the experience with the development of cancer risk have resulted in several realignments of the ALI limits by the ICRP. This needs a re-evaluation of the toxicity potential inherent in the nuclear fuel cycles of nuclear reactors and a re-evaluation of drawn conclusions. The radiotoxical evaluation of actinides and long-lived fission products are presented and discussed with special regard to Partitioning and Transmutation (P and T) issues. Detailed information about balancing the toxicity potential flow and its growth during the nuclear fuel cycle is given in order to determine a reference value for the comparison of natural and man-made toxicity. Calculations for different fuel types are exhibited and the resulting toxicity potentials are compared to these reference values in order to solely quantify in an idealized way the consequences of human action. The long-term toxicity potential of discharged PWR-fuels in case of direct disposal as well as Pu-recycling within MOX elements using U and Th are presented. The inherent drawbacks leads to the conclusion that with respect to a modified goal of final disposal only a full-scale P and T scheme is able to achieve long-term toxicity potentials on the same level as that of fresh fuel decaying naturally. Thus, the storage in a repository can relay more heavily on engineered barriers.

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key words: Fast Neutron Spectrum Systems, Nuclear Technology
Reference:
Advanced fuels with reduced actinide generation.Technical committee meeting, Vienna (Austria). 21-23 Nov 1995
International Atomic Energy Agency, Vienna (Austria)
IAEA-TECDOC--916, pp:71-82