Reduction and resource recycling of high-level radioactive wastes through nuclear transmutation; Impact of nuclear transmutation on disposal of high-level radioactive waste

Nishihara, Kenji  ; Makino, Hitoshi ; Koo, Shigeru*

In the ImPACT project, transmutation technology of long-lived fission products (LLFPs) is being developed in addition to minor actinides (MAs) transmutation studied in other programs. If MAs, LLFPs, and heat-generating fission products (FPs), which are Sr-90 and Cs-137, are removed from high-level waste (HLW), drastic benefit is anticipated on the disposal of HLW. In the present study, we tried to estimate two impacts through transport analysis of radionuclide: (1) disposal of the waste after transmutation in the deep underground repository designed for the conventional HLW, and (2) disposal of the waste after transmutation in the intermediate depth disposal designed for the low level radioactive wastes such as hull and end-pieces of the spent fuel assembly. As the result, the reduction of public dose in analysis (1) was observed, and the dose was enough small in analysis (2).