Toxicity reduction with total volume control in nuclear waste

Fukaya, Yuji; Ueta, Shohei; Yamamoto, Tomohiko; Chikazawa, Yoshitaka; Yan, X.

Nuclear Technology, 208(2), p.335 - 346, 2022/02

https://doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2021.1901001

When the total volume control on toxicity for nuclear waste management is applied, it becomes a limiting factor for the permittable total operation capacity of nuclear reactors. An alternative conceptual scenario to achieve the control is proposed that aims at toxicity reduction through Partitioning and Transmutation (P&T). Specifically, the electricity generation capacity could be inversely increased up with transmutation of Sr-Cs. Simultaneously, the cooling time before disposal is reduced to 50 years from the 300 years required by the existing scenarios such as (Accelerator Driven System (ADS). Finally, the scenario is also found feasible in terms of energy balance and cost by the neutron source of Li(d,xn) reaction with the deuteron accelerator for transmutation.