Merk, B.; Detkina, A.; Noori-kalkhoran, O.; Jain, L.; Litskevich, D.; Cartland-Glover, G. New Waste Management Options Created by iMAGINE through Direct Operation on Spent Nuclear Fuel Feed. Energies2023, 16, 7420.
Merk, B.; Detkina, A.; Noori-kalkhoran, O.; Jain, L.; Litskevich, D.; Cartland-Glover, G. New Waste Management Options Created by iMAGINE through Direct Operation on Spent Nuclear Fuel Feed. Energies 2023, 16, 7420.
Merk, B.; Detkina, A.; Noori-kalkhoran, O.; Jain, L.; Litskevich, D.; Cartland-Glover, G. New Waste Management Options Created by iMAGINE through Direct Operation on Spent Nuclear Fuel Feed. Energies2023, 16, 7420.
Merk, B.; Detkina, A.; Noori-kalkhoran, O.; Jain, L.; Litskevich, D.; Cartland-Glover, G. New Waste Management Options Created by iMAGINE through Direct Operation on Spent Nuclear Fuel Feed. Energies 2023, 16, 7420.
Abstract
The demand for improving the nuclear waste management has since long been identified as one of the major hurdles for widespread use of nuclear energy. Nuclear waste management, through partitioning and transmutation (P&T) has been researched since the 1990ies with partitioning being a pre-requisite for the process. Recently, an innovative approach of reactors directly operating on spent nuclear fuel, iMAGINE, has been proposed which could deliver on the aims of P&T as a side effect to more efficient nuclear energy production in the future. The results shown here confirm that it is possible to achieve the aims of P&T without prior partitioning, but it is certainly less efficient since the high concentration of MAs, required for efficient burning, are impossible to obtain in a short operational time. The proposed nuclear waste management approach will be a long-term effort when it is accomplished without partitioning/separation technologies. However, none of the analyses contradicts this effort – the key points are a) when the technology for treating the waste is possible and reliable, the time horizon will not be a major concern b) the waste management is now intrinsically linked with energy production instead of requiring dedicated costly facilities, delivering a promising economic basis c) the waste management is now associated with long-term energy production and massively improved resource utilization. In summary, the objectives of P&T are achievable without prior partitioning – this is a ground-breaking result. However, the approach will require continued nuclear energy production for a very long time. In case of a nuclear phase-out decision, a much more efficient transmutation scenario would have to be envisaged as already discussed several years ago for Germany.
Keywords
nuclear; nuclear energy; nuclear reactors; nuclear waste management; partitioning & transmutation; reactor physics; modelling and simulation; molten salt reactors; fission products; salt clean-up; plutonium management; minor actinides
Subject
Engineering, Energy and Fuel Technology
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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