Perspectives and cost of partitioning and transmutation of long-lived radionuclides

Directorate-General For Research And Innovation European Commission

Description

Nuclear energy and safety

Informations

• Publié par: DIRECTORATE-GENERAL-FOR-RESEARCH-AND-INNOVATION-EUROPEAN-COMMISSION
• Nombre de lectures: 19
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 10 Mo

Extrait

ISSN 1018-5593
European Commission
Perspectives and cost of
partitioning and transmutation of
long-lived radionuclides
EUR 17485 EN European Commission
Perspectives and cost of
partitioning and transmutation of
long-lived radionuclides
D. Lelièvre, H. Boussier1
J. P. Grouiller2
R. P. Bush3
'CEA-Marcoule
DCC/DRDD/SSP
F-30207 Bagnols-sur-Céze
2CEA-Cadarache
DER/SPRC
F-13108 St Paul-Lez-Durance
3AEA Technology pic
220 Harwell
DidcotOXH ORA
United Kingdom
Contract No FI2W-CT91-0106
Final report
Work performed as part of the European Atomic Energy Community's
shared-cost programme (1990-94) on 'Management and
storage of radioactive waste'
Task 1 : Studies of management systems
Directorate-General
Science, Research and Development
1997 EUR 17485 EN A great deal of additional information on the European Union is available on the Internet.
It can be accessed through the Europa server (http://europa.eu.int)
LEGAL NOTICE
Neither the European Commission nor any person acting on
behalf of the Commission is responsible for the use which might be made of the
following information
Cataloguing data can be found at the end of this publication
Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, 1997
ISBN 92-827-9575-6
© European Communities, 1997
Reproduction is authorized, except for commercial purposes, provided the source is acknowledged
Printed in Luxembourg FOREWORD
This is the final report for contract FI2W-CT91-0106 between the European Commission and the
CEA, entitled Perspectives and Cost of Partitioning and Transmutation o/Long-Lived Radionuclides.
The contract was amended and its scope extended in the course of its execution. One of the addenda
involved collaboration with AEA Technology as co-contractor.
The primary objectives of the study were:
• to assess the effects of various radionuclide recycling scenarios on the potential toxicity of long-
lived radionuclides produced in a European reactor population over a 100-year period (cycle
options included: no recycling, recycling of plutonium alone, separation and transmutation using
currently available technologies, and separation and recycling using fundamentally new
technologies);
• to assess the additional fuel cycle costs resulting from the first level of partitioning and
transmutation, compared with recycling of plutonium alone.
The investigation methodology included the following:
• define the scenarios, i.e. specify the number and type of reactors in the population, their startup
and shutdown dates, the types of fuel required, and the hypothetical fuel cycle operation yields;
• assess the existing European spent fuel inventory;
• simulate the evolution of the long-lived radionuclide inventories (mass and radioactivity) for each
scenario over the period covered by the study (2000-2100);
• determine the potential radiotoxicity resulting from ingestion, notably for the waste intended for
disposal and for mining tails.
The partitioning and transmutation study addressed the following additional objectives:
• identify the PUREX process modifications necessary to allow separation of the relevant long-lived
radionuclides with the required yields, and suitable for relatively short-term implementation at
industrial scale for the first level;
• describe the design changes in existing reprocessing plants resulting from these modifications,
and assess the relevant capital and operating costs;
• identify and evaluate the primary and secondary waste flows from these plants;
• describe the design changes required in fuel fabrication plants;
• estimate the additional occupational doses resulting from the new fuel cycle operations;
• assess the cost supplement due to these operations;
• verify that the performance characteristics (loading limits, transmutation rates, operability) of the
reactors used for this purpose are compatible with the hypotheses of the proposed scenarios.
These overall objectives were attained, and the results are discussed in this Report.
To facilitate the reader's task and ensure technical coherence, the Final Report is divided into three
main sections that may be consulted independently of one another:
General Overview Part A
Part Β Additional Information on Partitioning
PartC ln on Transmutation In addition to the authors formally designated for each part, the contributions of a number of other
persons to the final result must be acknowledged for their technical assistance or their help in
compiling the results. The following persons deserve special mention:
• G. Baudin and M. Salvatores, who were the originators of this work;
• J.M. Capron (CEA/DSE) for his help in detenriining the spent fuel inventories and for his
assistance with the economic assessments;
• C. Madie, J. Bourges, A. Jouan and L. Chaudon (CEA/DCC), as well as M. Tarnero, P. Lucas
and J.G. Devezeaux (COGEMA) for the time they spent validating the descriptions and results of
the partitioning study;
• Y. Guerin, P. Guedeney and D. Warin for their contributions concerning advanced fuel and
target fabrication for transmutation;
• M. Hugon, of the European Commission, for his valuable help in preparing the final report.
IV General content
FOREWORD iii
PART A : GENERAL OVERVIEW
1. INTRODUCTION A-5
2. APPLICABLE PARTITIONING AND TRANSMUTATION TECHNIQUES A-7
3. EXPECTED RESULTS A-18
4. CONCLUSIONS A-32
PART Β : ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON PARTITIONING
1. INTRODUCTION B-7
2. INVENTORY AND COMPARISON OF PARTITIONING PROCESSES B-
3. FIRST LEVEL PARTITIONING B-56
4. SECOND LEVELG B-63
5. TECHNICAL AND ECONOMICAL COMPARISON OF REPROCESSING-
PARTITIONING PLANTS B-72
6. PARTITIONING: CONCLUSION B-8
PART C : ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON TRANSMUTATION
1. INTRODUCTION C-7
2. OBJECTIVES OF IN-REACTOR TRANSMUTATION STUDIES C-8
3. PHYSICAL BASIS FOR IN-REACTORN C-12
4. HOMOGENEOUS RECYCLING IN PRESSURIZED WATER REACTORS C-21
5. HETEROGENEOUSG IND WATERS C-38
6.S RECYCLING IN FAST NEUTRON REACTORS C-59
7.SG IN FASTNS C-80
8. MODELING A FAST NEUTRON REACTOR SUITABLE FOR RECYCLING
LONG-LIVED RADIOACTIVE WASTE C-110
9. CONCLUSION5
V PART A - GENERAL OVERVIEW
D. LELIEVRE - H. BOUSSIER (CEA/DCC)
J.P. GROUILLER - A. ZAETTA (CEA/DRN)
R.P. BUSH (AEA Technology)