Flexible waste management system for the future application of MA P&T technology to the current high-level liquid waste

ABSTRACT

The flexible waste management (FWM) system has been proposed in order to apply the partitioning and transmutation (P&T) technology for minor actinides (MA) to the current high-level liquid waste (HLLW). This system consists of HLLW calcination to produce easy-to-dissolve granule; its temporary storage is required until the P&T technology deployment and re-dissolution of the granule to remove MA from HLLW after the future P&T technology deployment. The fundamental experiments were conducted to clarify the applicability of FWM system to the current HLLW, and the results indicate the technological validity of the system. The evaluations were carried out for the reduction of storage amount, potential radiotoxicity, and repository area of high-level waste.

KEYWORDS:

• Flexible waste management
• partitioning and transmutation
• minor actinides
• high-level waste
• granule
• temporary storage
• radiotoxicity
• repository area

Acknowledgments

This study is the result of “Realization Development of the Flexible Waste Management Method to Increase the Effectiveness of Minor Actinide Partitioning and Transmutation (P&T) Technology” entrusted to Nippon Nuclear Fuel Development Co., Ltd. by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan (MEXT).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).