Status report on fast reactor recycle and impact on geologic disposal.

Abstract

The GNEP program envisions continuing the use of light-water reactors (LWRs), with the addition of processing the discharged, or spent, LWR fuel to recover actinide and fission product elements, and then recycling the actinide elements in sodium-cooled fast reactors. Previous work has established the relationship between the processing efficiencies of spent LWR fuel, as represented by spent PWR fuel, and the potential increase in repository utilization for the resulting processing waste. The purpose of this current study is to determine a similar relationship for the waste from processing spent fast reactor fuel, and then to examine the wastes from the combination of LWRs and fast reactors as would be deployed with the GNEP approach.