Scenario study for closing nuclear power generation

Nishihara, Kenji; Tsujimoto, Kazufumi; Oigawa, Hiroyuki

NEA/NSC/DOC(2013)3, p.77 - 85, 2013/04

At the end of the nuclear power generation in the future, there will be considerable amount of nuclear material that will be no longer burnable in the commercial nuclear power reactors. In the transmutation strategy, Pu has to be transmuted prior to MA because of its amount and usability as the nuclear weapon. For the country without the FBR technology, Pu must be transmuted in the LWR dedicated for the transmutation in forms of the MOX fuel or the ROX fuel. If the transmutation systems such as fast reactor or accelerator-driven system are introduced in the nuclear fuel cycle, very small amount of Pu and MA are contained in the high-level waste. In the present study, above mentioned transmutation methods were investigated quantitatively in terms of necessary number of transmutation systems and period after closing the nuclear power with the use of the analysis code for nuclear material flow. Moreover, the comparison of repository were made along the transmutation scenarios.