Abstract
Processes such as PUREX allow the recovery and reuse of the uranium and the plutonium of GEN II/GEN III reactors and are being adapted for the recycling of the uranium and the plutonium of GEN IV MOX fuels. However, it does not fix the sensitive issue of the long-term management of the high active nuclear waste (HAW). Indeed, only the recovery and the transmutation of the minor actinides can reduce this burden down to a few hundreds of years. In this context, and in the continuity of the FP7 EURATOM SACSESS project, GENIORS focuses on the reprocessing of MOX fuel containing minor actinides, taking into account safety issues under normal and mal-operation. By implementing a three-step approach (reinforcement of the scientific knowledge => process development and testing => system studies, safety and integration), GENIORS will provide more science-based strategies for nuclear fuel management in the EU.
Highlights
The civilian use of the nuclear energy is more and more discussed in terms of global and long-term environmental impact
In the continuity of the FP7 EURATOM SACSESS project, GENIORS focuses on the reprocessing of mixed oxide fuel (MOX) fuel containing minor actinides, taking into account safety issues under normal and mal-operation
Gathering CEA (France) and University of Reading (UK), it focused on the recovery of actinide cations An(III) and lanthanide cations Ln(III) from the PUREX raffinate using diamide family molecules (Fig. 3, right) and to the separation of An(III) and Ln(III) using TPTZ family molecules (2,4,6-Tris(2-pyridyl)-s-triazine) (Fig. 3, centre)
Summary
The civilian use of the nuclear energy is more and more discussed in terms of global and long-term environmental impact. In most of the countries having deployed the nuclear energy, the spent nuclear fuel coming out of the reactor after four/five years are directly stored and considered as the ultimate waste under dry or wet conditions Their very long-term disposal is not fully assessed, and it will take more than 200,000 years before their relative radiotoxicity drop down to the one the natural uranium (Fig. 1, orange curve). The partitioning is the chemical process step allowing the recovery the minor actinides from the spent fuel dissolution liquor, and the transmutation is the physical process step transforming these minor actinides into short life radionuclides in fast reactors or dedicated systems (ADS) With such an approach, the relative radiotoxicity would drop below the one of the natural uranium after only 300 years (Fig. 1, blue curve). After a summary of the background of these studies, the work done over the last 6 years within the FP7 project SACSESS and the H2020 project GENIORS on the promising reference processes will be developed
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