7.1 Introduction
When concerned with energy, one cannot avoid considering geostrategic questions
and the international political situation. Indeed, major armed conflicts in the world
in past decades are taking place in major fossil energy production countries or on
the major roads connecting places of great production with those of large consumption. Therefore, Europe is very concerned about the security of its supply in terms of
energy, especially when considering the limited energy fossil resources in the
European Union (EU). As such, nuclear power remains a major energy source in
the EU.
Presently, the EU relies, for 30 % of its electric power production, on generation
II–III fission nuclear reactors, leading to the annual production of 2,500 t/year of
used fuel, containing 25 t plutonium, and high-level wastes (HLW) such as 3.5 t of
minor actinides (MA), namely, neptunium (Np), americium (Am), and curium
(Cm), and 3 t of long-lived fission products (LLFPs). These MA and LLFP stocks
need to be managed in an appropriate way. The reprocessing of used fuel (closed
fuel cycle) followed by geological disposal, or direct geological disposal (open fuel
cycle), are today the envisaged solutions in Europe, depending on national fuel
cycle options and waste management policies. The required time scale for geological disposal exceeds our accumulated technological knowledge, and this remains
the main concern of the public. Partitioning and Transmutation (P&T) has been
pointed out in numerous studies as the strategy that can relax constraints on
geological disposal and reduce the monitoring period to technological and manageable time scales. Therefore, a special effort is ongoing in Europe and beyond to
integrate P&T in advanced fuel cycles and advanced options for HLW management. Transmutation based on critical or subcritical fast-spectrum transmuters
should be evaluated to assess the technical and economic feasibility of this waste
management option, which could ease the development of a deep geological
storage.
Despite diverse strategies and policies pursued by European Member States
concerning nuclear power and the envisaged fuel cycle policy ranging from the
once-through without reprocessing to the double-strata fuel cycle ending with ADS
as the ultimate burner or generation IV (Gen-IV) fast critical reactors multirecycling all transuranic (TRUs), P&T requires an integrated effort at the
European and even worldwide level. Even when considering the phase-out of
nuclear energy, the combination of P&T and a dedicated burner such as ADS
technologies, at a European scale, would allow meeting the objectives of both
types of countries, those phasing out nuclear energy as well as countries favoring
the continuation of nuclear energy development toward the deployment of new fastspectrum systems.
The concept of partitioning and transmutation has three main goals: reduction of
the radiological hazard associated with spent fuel by reducing the inventory of
minor actinides, reduction of the time interval required to reach the radiotoxicity of
60
H.A. Abderrahim
When concerned with energy, one cannot avoid considering geostrategic questions
and the international political situation. Indeed, major armed conflicts in the world
in past decades are taking place in major fossil energy production countries or on
the major roads connecting places of great production with those of large consumption. Therefore, Europe is very concerned about the security of its supply in terms of
energy, especially when considering the limited energy fossil resources in the
European Union (EU). As such, nuclear power remains a major energy source in
the EU.
Presently, the EU relies, for 30 % of its electric power production, on generation
II–III fission nuclear reactors, leading to the annual production of 2,500 t/year of
used fuel, containing 25 t plutonium, and high-level wastes (HLW) such as 3.5 t of
minor actinides (MA), namely, neptunium (Np), americium (Am), and curium
(Cm), and 3 t of long-lived fission products (LLFPs). These MA and LLFP stocks
need to be managed in an appropriate way. The reprocessing of used fuel (closed
fuel cycle) followed by geological disposal, or direct geological disposal (open fuel
cycle), are today the envisaged solutions in Europe, depending on national fuel
cycle options and waste management policies. The required time scale for geological disposal exceeds our accumulated technological knowledge, and this remains
the main concern of the public. Partitioning and Transmutation (P&T) has been
pointed out in numerous studies as the strategy that can relax constraints on
geological disposal and reduce the monitoring period to technological and manageable time scales. Therefore, a special effort is ongoing in Europe and beyond to
integrate P&T in advanced fuel cycles and advanced options for HLW management. Transmutation based on critical or subcritical fast-spectrum transmuters
should be evaluated to assess the technical and economic feasibility of this waste
management option, which could ease the development of a deep geological
storage.
Despite diverse strategies and policies pursued by European Member States
concerning nuclear power and the envisaged fuel cycle policy ranging from the
once-through without reprocessing to the double-strata fuel cycle ending with ADS
as the ultimate burner or generation IV (Gen-IV) fast critical reactors multirecycling all transuranic (TRUs), P&T requires an integrated effort at the
European and even worldwide level. Even when considering the phase-out of
nuclear energy, the combination of P&T and a dedicated burner such as ADS
technologies, at a European scale, would allow meeting the objectives of both
types of countries, those phasing out nuclear energy as well as countries favoring
the continuation of nuclear energy development toward the deployment of new fastspectrum systems.
The concept of partitioning and transmutation has three main goals: reduction of
the radiological hazard associated with spent fuel by reducing the inventory of
minor actinides, reduction of the time interval required to reach the radiotoxicity of
60
H.A. Abderrahim