Seventh Information Exchange Meeting on Actinide and Fission Partitioning and Transmutation

During the last decade interest in partitioning and transmutation has grown in many countries around the world. In the years to come, partitioning and transmutation (P&T) technology is expected to be one of the key technologies for nuclear waste management, together with geological disposal. In order to give experts a forum to present and discuss state-of-the-art developments in the P&T field, the OECD/NEA has been holding biennial Information Exchange Meetings on Actinide and Fission Product Partitioning and Transmutation since 1990. The previous meetings were held in Mito (Japan) in 1990, at ANL (USA) in 1992, in Cadarache (France) in 1994, in Mito (Japan) in 1996, in Mol (Belgium) in 1998, and in Madrid (Spain) in 2000. This 7th meeting was hosted by the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI), the Korea Electric Power Research Institute (KEPRI) and the Korean Nuclear Society (KNS), and was held in co-operation with the European Commission and the International Atomic Energy Agency. The proceedings of this meeting are currently in preparation.

Technical areas

The meeting covered the broad spectrum of developments in the field of P&T, and emphasised in particular:

the role of P&T in advanced nuclear fuel cycles (environmental aspects, economics);
developments in partitioning;
the technology of reactors and accelerator-driven systems as transmutation devices, including developments in accelerators, materials (targets, coolants) and fuels;
the performance of transmutation systems and their safety;
R&D needs, including benchmarks, data improvement, experiments and the role of international collaboration.

General programme of the meeting

The preliminary final meeting programme is now available (pdf format, 300 kb).

The meeting began with presentations of national and international programmes on P&T as follows:

General session: National and international programmes on P&T
chaired by Chang-Kue Park (KAERI, Korea) and Peter Wilmer (OECD/NEA)

Japan: Hideki Takano (JAERI)
USA: John Herczeg (DOE)
Korea: Jae-Hyung Yoo (KAERI)
France: Dominique Warin (CEA)
Russia: Victor Ignatiev (Kurchatov Institute)
China: Zhixiang Zhao (China Institute of Atomic Energy)

European programmes: Ved Bhatnagar (EC)
IAEA activities: Alex Stanculescu (IAEA)
OECD/NEA activities: Claes Nordborg (OECD/NEA)

The technical sessions were as follows:

I. Fuel Cycle Strategy and Future Reactors
chaired by Peter Wydler (Switzerland) and Joo-Ho Whang (Kyung-Hee University, Korea)

II. Progress in Partitioning and Waste Forms
chaired by James Laidler (ANL, USA) and Jean-Paul Glatz (ITU, EC)

III. Progress in Fuels and Targets
chaired by Yasuo Arai (JAERI, Japan) and Sylvie Pillon (CEA, France)

IV. Progress in Materials: Spallation Targets and Advanced Coolants
chaired by Guenter Bauer (FZJ, Germany) and Joachim Knebel (FZK, Germany)

V. Progress in Physics and Nuclear Data
chaired by Toshitaka Osugi (JAERI, Japan) and Enrique Gonzalez (CIEMAT, Spain)

VI. Transmutation Systems (Critical and Sub-critical): Design and Safety
chaired by Luciano Cinotti (Ansaldo, Italy) and Michael Cappiello (LANL, USA)

Two poster sessions were organised on Tuesday 15 and Wednesday 16 October, covering the above six technical topics.

At the summary session, reviews and findings of each technical session were presented by the session chairs. Finally, a panel discussion on future development was held, followed by the closing session.

	Sunday 13 October	Monday 14 October	Tuesday 15 October	Wednesday 16 October
8:00-10:00		8:00-8:30 Registration 8:30-9:10 Welcome addresses 9:10 - 10:00 General session	Technical session III	Technical session VI
10:00-10:20		Break	Break	Break
10:20-12:20		General session (continued)	*Poster session* *(I, II, III)*	*Poster session* *(IV, V, VI)*
12:20-14:00		Lunch	Lunch	Lunch
14:00-16:00	Registration	Technical session I	Technical session IV	Summary session (reviews by session chairs)
16:00-16:20		Break	Break	Break
16:20-18:20		Technical session II	Technical session V	Panel discussion on future development and closing session

Meeting organisation

General Co-Chairs:	Luis Echávarri, Director General of the OECD/NEA

	Chung Won Cho, Director General for Nuclear Energy, Ministry of Science and Technology (Korea)

Organising Chair:	Chang Kue Park, Senior Vice-President of KAERI (Korea)

Scientific Chair:	Phillip Finck, Argonne National Laboratory (USA)

Scientific advisory committee

Hideki Takano (JAERI)	Waclaw Gudowski (RIT)
Toshitaka Osugi (JAERI)	Jan Kloosterman (Delft University)
Tadashi Inoue (CRIEPI)	Jan Uhlir (NRI)
Toshio Wakabayashi (JNC)	Joachim Knebel (FZK)
Jae Hyung Yoo (KAERI)	James Bresee (DOE)
Won Seok Park (KAERI)	Dave Hill (ORNL)
Enrique Gonzalez (CIEMAT)	Dave Wade (ANL)
Stefano Monti (ENEA)	James Laidler (ANL)
Alberto Negrini (ANSALDO)	Greg Van Tuyle (LANL)
Alain Zaetta (CEA)	Jean-Paul Glatz (EC/ITU)
Jean-Marie Loiseaux (CNRS)	Massimo Salvatores (CEA & ANL)
Sylvie Pillon (CEA)	Peter Wydler (PSI)
Colin Zimmerman (BNFL)	Michel Hugon (EC)
Pierre D’hondt (SCK-CEN)	Alex Stanculescu (IAEA)

Organising committee

Byung Ho Choi (KAERI)	Chang Lak Kim (KHNP-NETEC)
Won Seok Park (KAERI)	Byung Chan Na (NEA)
Chang Sub Lee (KEPRI)	Luc Van den Durpel (NEA)
Sung Man Bae (KEPRI)

Actinide and Fission Product Partitioning & Transmutation