Accelerator driven system for efficient transmutation of radioactive waste

Maekawa, Fujio  

One of the promising applications of high-intensity accelerators is nuclear transmutation by using accelerator-driven systems (ADS). The ADS is a system consisting of an accelerator and a subcritical nuclear reactor core. A charged particle beam accelerated by the accelerator is injected into the subcritical core to operate the core continuously at a constant power. Harmful elements, especially highly toxic minor actinides (Np, Am, Cm), are partitioned from high-level radioactive waste generated in nuclear power plants. Those elements are loaded in the subcritical core, and transmuted in short-lived or stable nuclides by operating the ADS. Accordingly, the ADS can efficiently reduce the toxicity and volume of high-level radioactive waste. Developing nuclear transmutation technology will provide a powerful means of solving the problem of nuclear waste, which will greatly contribute to the promotion of the use of nuclear energy and eventually the achievement of carbon neutrality. This talk will touch on what is the ADS and the current status of the ADS development.