OECD Nuclear Energy Agency / L'Agence pour l'énergie nucléaire

Actinide and Fission Product Partitioning and Transmutation

Status and Assessment Report

Synthèse des travaux

Publication date: May 1999

This report was prepared by an expert group, composed of 30 scientists representing 12 countries and three international organisations, to provide the decision makers with the comprehensive status and assessment information on the Partitioning and Transmutation (P&T) of actinides and fission products.

The report is subdivided into two main parts:

the first part gives a general overview of P&T with a critical evaluation and general conclusions;

the second part covers a technical discussion and a systems analysis of partitioning, transmutation and risk analysis within an advanced fuel cycle and in a long term waste management option.

This new OECD/NEA publication on P&T is free upon request from neapub@nea.fr.

This publication in pdf-format can also be downloaded as a whole or per chapter. The following table of contents indicates the links for downloading.

The documents are available in Acrobat PDF format.

Short Table of Contents
(full table of contents)

COMPLETE DOCUMENT (1862 kb)

FOREWORD

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY AND SCOPE OF THE REPORT

PART I. GENERAL OVERVIEW (English, French)

1. INTRODUCTION

2. STATUS AND EXPECTATION OF P&T TECHNOLOGY

2.1 Strategies
2.2 Reprocessing
2.3 Fuel and target technology

3. DESCRIPTION OF THE FUEL CYCLES

3.1 The nuclear fuel cycles
3.2 Overview of the fuel cycles and associated issues

4. CRITICAL EVALUATION

5. GENERAL CONCLUSIONS

REFERENCES

PART II. TECHNICAL ANALYSIS AND SYSTEMS STUDY

1. PARTITIONING

1.1 Aqueous separation techniques
1.2 Non-aqueous methods

2. TRANSMUTATION

2.1 Introduction
2.2 Target and fuel fabrication technology
2.3 Transmutation of minor actinides
2.4 Transmutation of long-lived fission products

3. DESCRIPTION OF CURRENT TRENDS IN P&T RESEARCH

3.1 Current R&D activities
3.2 Summary of current strategy studies

4. IMPACT OF P&T ON RISK ASSESSMENT AND WASTE MANAGEMENT

4.1 Introduction and definition of radiotoxicity and risk
4.2 Radiotoxic inventory of waste
4.3 Possible impact of P&T on TRU reduction
4.4 Risk and hazard assessment over time
4.5 Waste management concepts
4.6 Criticality safety

5. COMMENTARY ON EXISTING P&T SYSTEMS STUDIES

5.1 First generation systems study reports
5.2 Second generation reports

REFERENCES

Annex A List of expert group members

Annex B OMEGA programme

Annex C SPIN programme

Annex D Bibliography on partitioning of minor actinides

Annex E Spent fuel composition as a function of burn-up and cooling times

Annex F Elements of cost

Annex G List of abbreviations, units and glossary of terms