Münster 2017 – scientific programme

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AGA: Arbeitsgruppe Physik und Abrüstung

AGA 6: Fissile Materials

AGA 6.1: Talk

Friday, March 31, 2017, 09:30–10:00, S Aula

Long-lived Fission Products in the Spent Fuel from Accelerator-Driven Systems in a Transmutation Fuel Cycle — •Friederike Frieß^1,2 and Wolfgang Liebert¹ — ¹ISR, Universität für Bodenkultur Wien (BOKU), Österreich — ²IANUS, TU Darmstadt, Deutschland

In the light of the still unsolved problem of radioactive waste disposal, the idea of Partitioning and Transmutation (P&T) of minor actinides or all transuranic elements in fast reactors systems is proposed as a possible solution. Doing so would reduce the radiotoxicity of the spent fuel, leading proponents to the conclusion that safe containment in the final repository must be ensured only for several thousand compared to millions of years.

Based on depletion calculations for a generic Accelerator-Driven System (ADS), the build-up of different radionuclides in the spent fuel, assuming inert matrix fuel with an increased content of minor actinides, is calculated. Their concentration is compared to the concentration in conventional spent fuel. The focus lies on long-lived fission products such as Zr-93, Te-99, I-129 and Cs-135 that are of great relevance to the long-term safety evaluation of the final repository. The study shows that a P&T fuel cycle leads to an unproportional high generation of Cs-135 in the spent fuel. Results indicate that it might not be sufficient to only consider the amount of additional fission products when evaluating the impact of different fuel cycles on the spent fuel inventory.