International Topical Meeting on Nuclear Research Applications and Utilization of Accelerators

4-8 May 2009, Vienna

Partitioning and Transmutation Research in Germany

J.U. Knebel

Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe Programme Nuclear Safety Research (NUKLEAR), Karlsruhe, Germany

Corresponding Author: Joachim.Knebel@nuklear.fzk.de

Based on the presently scheduled operation times for nuclear power plants in Germany, more than 17500 tons spent fuel containing approximately 175 tons plutonium, 15 tons minor actinides(neptunium, americium and curium) and 700 tons of fission products will be generated until 2022. About 7000 tons have been shipped to France and UK for reprocessing to recover plutonium and uranium. The safe disposal of high-level radioactive waste, i.e., spent fuel and heat producing waste arising from reprocessing, is the responsibility of the federal government.

The safety research for nuclear waste disposal is organised according to three major areas: characterisation and immobilisation of radioactive waste, reduction of radiotoxicity (partitioning and transmutation), and long-term safety of nuclear waste disposal. Here, only the second issue is dealt with.

As far as the reduction of radiotoxicity of the high level nuclear waste is concerned, partitioning and transmutation (P&T) is considered as a way to reduce the burden on geological disposal. The expected impact of P&T on a deep geological repository is related to the reduction of the long-term radiotoxicity associated with nuclear wastes, the reduction of the time period for nuclear waste isolation from the biosphere and the masses to be stored and their associated residual heat load. Independently of a P&T option, the safe disposal of radioactive waste in deep geological formations is indispensable, because of losses during P&T cycles and the HLLW, which is already vitrified.

The work is jointly performed by the Research Centres in Dresden-Rossendorf, Jülich and Karlsruhe.