Japanese fast reactor program for homogeneous actinide recycling

Ishikawa, Makoto; Nagata, Takashi; Kondo, Satoru

In Japan, the significance of the development of fast reactor (FR) cycle technology has been seriously recognized in the national fundamental nuclear energy policy. Further, nuclear energy as a whole is indispensable worldwide to meet the expansion of energy demand and the solution of environmental problem such as global climate change. Under such circumstances, Japan launched the FR Cycle Technology Development (FaCT) Project in 2006. In FaCT, the design study and the R&D on innovative technologies regarding the main concept are conducted in order to present the conceptual designs of demonstration and commercial FR cycle facilities by around 2015. The main purpose of the near-term R&Ds by 2010 is to judge whether adoption of innovative technologies is feasible. The R&D program on the innovative technologies will be further extended toward 2015, with the demonstration FR expected to be operated in 2025. The concept of the FR cycle system has various aspects from the viewpoints of safety and reliability, economy, sustainability (consisting of reduction of environmental burden, waste management and efficient utilization of uranium resource), and proliferation resistance. The homogeneous recycling of an entire amount of actinides has a significant advantage from these development targets. In the present paper, we will discuss about our scenario of the homogeneous actinide recycling in the FR cycle system, based on our recent studies in the FaCT Project. The studies on the scenario of nuclear energy policy, the management and development of minor actinide (MA)-bearing fuel, reactor physics related to MA-loaded FR cores, and typical nuclear design of MA-loaded FR cores have shown the feasibility to recycle all MA in the future FR-equilibrium society. Also presented are the R&D programs to demonstrate the homogeneous actinide recycling, which are extensively conducted as one of the key national projects in Japan, as well as utilizing international cooperation.