Impact of partitioning and transmutation on high-level waste disposal for the fast breeder reactor fuel cycle

Nishihara, Kenji  ; Oigawa, Hiroyuki ; Nakayama, Shinichi ; Ono, Kiyoshi ; Shiotani, Hiroki

The impact of partitioning and/or transmutation (PT) technology on the high level waste management was investigated for the fast breeder reactor (FBR) fuel cycle. Three different fuel cycle scenarios involving PT technology were analyzed: (1) partitioning process only (separation of some fission products), (2) transmutation process only (separation and transmutation of minor actinides), and (3) both partitioning and transmutation. It was found that the introduction of FBR cycle without PT yields a smaller repository after 65 years of predisposal storage than the LWR after 50 years by a factor of up to 0.65. The impact of the partitioning-only process on the repository is not significant, but that of the transmutation-only process produces a reduction of area by a factor of 0.25 after 80 years of storage, and that of a coupled partitioning and transmutation by two orders of magnitude after 60 and 295 years of storage for the glass waste and the calcined waste with Sr-Cs, respectively.