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Advanced Nuclear Fuel Cycles and Radioactive Waste Management

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Advanced Nuclear Fuel Cycles and Radioactive Waste Management as-Advanced NucFuel Cycles 5990 11/05/06 11:49 Page 1 Nuclear Development 2006 Advanced Nuclear Fuel Cycles and Radioactive Waste Management Management Advanced Nuclear Fuel Cycles and Radioactive Waste Advanced Nuclear Fuel This study analyses a range of advanced nuclear fuel cycle options from the perspective of their effect on radioactive waste management policies. It presents various fuel cycle options which illustrate Cycles and Radioactive differences between alternative technologies, but does not purport to cover all foreseeable future fuel cycles. The analysis extends the work carried out in previous studies, assesses the fuel cycles as a whole, including all radioactive waste generated at each step of the cycles, and covers high-level Waste Management waste repository performance for the different fuel cycles considered. The estimates of quantities and types of waste arising from advanced fuel cycles are based on best available data and experts' judgement. The effects of various advanced fuel cycles on the management of radioactive waste are assessed relative to current technologies and options, using tools such as repository performance analysis and cost studies. (66 2006 05 1 P) € 50.00 -:HSTCQE=UWY]ZY: ISBN 92-64-02485-9 NUCLEAR•ENERGY•AGENCY Nuclear Development Advanced Nuclear Fuel Cycles and Radioactive Waste Management © OECD 2006 NEA No. 5990 NUCLEAR ENERGY AGENCY ORGANISATION FOR ECONOMIC CO-OPERATION AND DEVELOPMENT ORGANISATION FOR ECONOMIC CO-OPERATION AND DEVELOPMENT The OECD is a unique forum where the governments of 30 democracies work together to address the economic, social and environmental challenges of globalisation. The OECD is also at the forefront of efforts to understand and to help governments respond to new developments and concerns, such as corporate governance, the information economy and the challenges of an ageing population. The Organisation provides a setting where governments can compare policy experiences, seek answers to common problems, identify good practice and work to co-ordinate domestic and international policies. The OECD member countries are: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Luxembourg, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, the Slovak Republic, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States. The Commission of the European Communities takes part in the work of the OECD. OECD Publishing disseminates widely the results of the Organisation’s statistics gathering and research on economic, social and environmental issues, as well as the conventions, guidelines and standards agreed by its members. * * * This work is published on the responsibility of the Secretary-General of the OECD. The opinions expressed and arguments employed herein do not necessarily reflect the official views of the Organisation or of the governments of its member countries. NUCLEAR ENERGY AGENCY The OECD Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) was established on 1st February 1958 under the name of the OEEC European Nuclear Energy Agency. It received its present designation on 20th April 1972, when Japan became its first non-European full member. NEA membership today consists of 28 OECD member countries: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Mexico, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Republic of Korea, the Slovak Republic, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States. The Commission of the European Communities also takes part in the work of the Agency. The mission of the NEA is: to assist its member countries in maintaining and further developing, through international co-operation, the scientific, technological and legal bases required for a safe, environmentally friendly and economical use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes, as well as to provide authoritative assessments and to forge common understandings on key issues, as input to government decisions on nuclear energy policy and to broader OECD policy analyses in areas such as energy and sustainable development. Specific areas of competence of the NEA include safety and regulation of nuclear activities, radioactive waste management, radiological protection, nuclear science, economic and technical analyses of the nuclear fuel cycle, nuclear law and liability, and public information. The NEA Data Bank provides nuclear data and computer program services for participating countries. In these and related tasks, the NEA works in close collaboration with the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna, with which it has a Co-operation Agreement, as well as with other international organisations in the nuclear field. © OECD 2006 No reproduction, copy, transmission or translation of this publication may be made without written permission. Applications should be sent to OECD Publishing: [email protected] or by fax (+33-1) 45 24 13 91. Permission to photocopy a portion of this work should be addressed to the Centre Français d’exploitation du droit de Copie, 20 rue des Grands Augustins, 75006 Paris, France ([email protected]). FOREWORD Advanced fuel cycle options address some of the problems raised by the long-term radiotoxicity of high-level waste (HLW) by burning most of the long-lived minor actinides. Reducing the amount of actinides to be disposed of does not facilitate the short- and medium-term waste management, because a key issue during that timeframe is the heat generated by fission products. However, advanced separation technologies may offer alternatives for the management of the “trouble-maker” fission products, such as nuclides generating large amounts of heat. Earlier studies have concluded that partitioning facilities for actinides (such as plutonium, americium, curium and neptunium) and some long-lived fission products could be designed and constructed as extensions to existing reprocessing plants, although much work remains to be done to make these extensions compatible with industrial reprocessing practices. Many studies have demonstrated that fast-neutron-spectrum devices (dedicated fast reactor or accelerator-driven facilities) are more efficient than current light water reactors for recycling and transmuting long-lived radionuclides. A previous NEA study on advanced fuel cycles showed that the development of such cycles relies on new reactor designs which will require substantial, long-term R&D efforts and will likely take decades to implement. The scope of the present study and the fuel cycles assessed are introduced in the first two chapters. The waste categories used in this study and the secondary waste flows generated in different fuel cycle steps are presented in Chapter 3. In Chapter 4, the alternative fission product management options are described. The results of the HLW repository performance assessment calculations are presented in Chapter 5. The economic aspects of transmutation strategies are analysed in Chapter 6. Each technical chapter carries its own conclusions. The overall conclusions of the study are given in Chapter 7. 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY........................................................................................................... 11 1. INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................... 17 1.1 Background................................................................................................................. 17 1.2 Sustainable development perspective ......................................................................... 18 1.3 Main results of earlier studies ..................................................................................... 18 1.4 Current study............................................................................................................... 19 References............................................................................................................................. 19 2. FUEL CYCLES ........................................................................................................................ 21 2.1 Introduction................................................................................................................. 21 2.2 Fuel cycle schemes ..................................................................................................... 22 2.3 Reactor and fuel cycle characteristics......................................................................... 27 2.4 Analysis methods........................................................................................................ 28 2.5 Results......................................................................................................................... 29 2.6 Conclusions................................................................................................................. 39 References ............................................................................................................................. 40 3. WASTE GENERATION PROCESSES AND WASTE CHARACTERISTICS ................ 43 3.1 Introduction................................................................................................................. 43 3.2 Waste generated by processes of the fuel cycle.......................................................... 52 3.3 Decommissioning waste ............................................................................................
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