Mandate of the WPFC

• Chair: Ms. Kathryn A. McCarthy (USA)
• Members:All NEA member countries
• Participation in the work: European Commission (Under the NEA Statute), International Atomic Energy Agency (By agreement)
• Observer: Russian Federation
• Date of creation: June 2004
• Duration: June 2010
• Mandate: Agreed at the 15th meeting of the Nuclear Science Committee (NSC), 9-11 June 2004 [NEA/SEN/NSC(2004)3], extended at the 18th meeting of the NSC, 13-15 June 2007.

Scope

Under the guidance of the Nuclear Science Committee, the working party will deal with scientific issues in various existing and advanced nuclear fuel cycles, including fuel cycle physics, associated chemistry and flowsheets, development and performance of fuels and materials, and accelerators and spallation targets

Objectives

To provide member countries with up-to-date information on and develop consensus regarding:

• Separations science
• Develop a scientific basis for optimisation of the use of future nuclear waste repositories.
• Establish a methodology for evaluating impacts of various existing and advanced fuel cycle scenarios on potential storage and repositories.
• Provide a means for the development and evaluation of advanced processing concepts, including design bases for future reprocessing plants.
• Fuel cycle scenarios
  • Assemble and organise scientific information critical to the understanding of the issues involved in transitioning from current fuel cycles to future fuel cycles.
  • Provide scientific bases for fuel cycle deployment strategies.
• Chemical partitioning
• Keep updated information on separation technologies, including advanced aqueous and pyrochemical processing issues.
• Perform a detailed scientific study of separations processes for different fuel cycle scenarios.
• Fuels and materials
• Undertake studies needed for the development of fuels and materials for implementing advanced nuclear fuel cycles.
• Deal with the performance and behaviour of advanced fuels.
• Update the handbook on lead and lea1d-bismuth eutectic (LBE) technology as new information becomes available.
• Thermal-hydraulic studies of lead-alloy coolants.
.
• Accelerators and targets;
  • Deal with accelerator reliability issues.
  • Target performance, including spallation products.
  • Window performance, including thermal stress and radiation damage, windowless targets

• To liaise closely with other relevant NSC Working Parties and NEA Standing Technical Committees, especially the Nuclear Development Committee (NDC) and the Radioactive Waste Management Committee (RWMC), to ensure the respective work programmes are complementary and to provide advice and support where required and undertake common work where appropriate. Particularly close working relationships will be maintained with the Working Party on Scientific issues of Reactor Systems (WPRS).
• To provide advice to the nuclear community on the developments needed to meet the requirements for implementing advanced long-term sustainable nuclear fuel cycles, including partitioning and transmutation.

Deliverables

• Expert Group on Chemical Partitioning
  • State-of-the-art report on national programmes in partitioning;
  • Report on flowsheet study;
  • Report on separations criteria studies.
• Expert Group on Fuel cycle Transition Scenarios Studies
  • Status report on the fuel cycle scenario studies;
  • Regional study related to the potential implementation in Europe of advanced fuel cycle;
  • Benchmark report on scenario codes performances.
• Expert Group on Lead Bismuth Eutectic (LBE) Tehnology
  • LBE Handbook - Version 1;
  • Benchmark on thermal-hydraulic loop models for Lead-Alloy Cooled Advanced Nuclear Energy Systems (LACANES).
• Proceedings
• Fifth Workshop on the Utilisation and Reliability of High Power Proton Accelerators;
• Tenth Information Exchange Meeting on Actinide and Fission Product Partitioning and Transmutation.

For more information on this working party, please contact Yong-Joon CHOI (Tel: +33 1 45 24 10 91, yongjoon.choi@oecd.org)

For more information on activities managed/supported by the NSC, please contact Claes Nordborg (Claes.Nordborg@oecd.org) Return to the NSC Home Page