Status And Trends In Spent Fuel Reprocessing

The management of spent fuel arising from nuclear power production is a crucial issue for the sustainable development of nuclear energy. The IAEA has issued several publications in the past that provide technical information on the global status and trends in spent fuel reprocessing and associated topics, and one reason for this present publication is to provide an update of this information which has mostly focused on the conventional technology applied in the industry. However, the scope of this publication has been significantly expanded in an attempt to make it more comprehensive and by including a section on emerging technologies applicable to future innovative nuclear systems, as are being addressed in such international initiatives as INPRO, Gen IV and MICANET. In an effort to be informative, this publication attempts to provide a state-of-the-art review of these technologies, and to identify major issues associated with reprocessing as an option for spent fuel management. It does not, however, provide any detailed information on some of the related issues such as safety or safeguards, which are addressed in other relevant publications.

This publication provides a global overview of the status of spent fuel and radioactive waste management programmes, inventories, current practices, technologies and trends. It presents information on national arrangements for the management of spent fuel and radioactive waste, and on current waste and spent fuel inventories and their future estimates. Achievements, challenges and trends in the management of spent fuel and radioactive waste are also addressed. This second edition has been developed with a basis of national profiles submitted by Member States, complemented with openly available Joint Convention National Reports. The data reported are fully dependent on the input from the States and by the assumptions made to transform these data into the waste classes defined in IAEA Safety Standards Series No. GSG-1, Classification of Radioactive Waste.

This publication provides a global overview of the status of spent fuel and radioactive waste management programmes, inventories, current practices, technologies and trends. It presents information on national arrangements for the management of spent fuel and radioactive waste, and on current waste and spent fuel inventories and their future estimates. Achievements, challenges and trends in the management of spent fuel and radioactive waste are also addressed. This second edition has been developed with a basis of national profiles submitted by Member States, complemented with openly available Joint Convention National Reports. The data reported are fully dependent on the input from the States and by the assumptions made to transform these data into the waste classes defined in IAEA Safety Standards Series No. GSG-1, Classification of Radioactive Waste

The projected growth of the nuclear industry and quantities of resultant spent fuel could cause stress to the current international non-proliferation regime. This publication provides an update on the latest developments in nuclear reprocessing technologies in light of new developments on the global nuclear scene.

The importance of recycling the spent nuclear fuel through partitioning processes has been recognized worldwide for increasing and sustaining nuclear energy.

"The importance of recycling the spent nuclear fuel through partitioning processes has been recognized worldwide for increasing and sustaining nuclear energy. Therefore, the development of advanced partitioning processes, based either on hydrometallurgical or on pyrometallurgical technologies, has received an increasing interest in recent years. Moving towards industrial demonstration, partitioning processes are applied for the separation of actinides, including minor actinides, not only to reduce the burden of high level waste to be disposed of, in terms of heat-load and radiotoxicity, but also to improve the efficiency of the resources' utilization. Furthermore, in the case of Molten Salt Reactors, whose fuel cycle is primary based on pyrochemical processes, there is a need for strengthening pyrometallurgical technologies. This publication reviews the status and trends in the development of pyrometallurgical processes and technologies for processing spent nuclear fuel and identifies gap areas requiring further development."--Publisher's description.