COMPLETE DOCUMENT (1862 kb) - OECD Nuclear Energy Agency

OECD/NEA programmes
The OECD/NEA Nuclear Science Committee (NSC) started activities related to ADS and
published a report describing different transmutation systems [129]. This report was followed by an
international benchmark exercise to compare a specific fuel scenario, where MAs were recycled either
through a PWR, a fast reactor or an accelerator-driven system [130]. In October 1998, the NSC
organized a workshop in Japan on the “Utilization and Reliability of High Power Proton Accelerators”
[131].
The NSC is organizing a series of meetings on “Shielding Aspects of Accelerators and Irradiation
Facilities (SATIF)”. The fourth meeting was held at Knoxville, TN, USA, in September 1998 [132].
In addition, the NSC and the NEA Data Bank have activities of intercomparing the performance of
computer codes [133-140] and have activities of evaluating intermediate energy nuclear data files
[141,142], used for the modeling of ADS systems.
IAEA programme
IAEA published a status report [143] on accelerator-driven system to overview development
activities and system concepts. A benchmark of sub-critical core (Stage 1) has been completed in the
frame of the IAEA CRP on use of Th-based cycle in ADSs to incinerate Pu and to reduce long-term
waste toxicities and results were reported to the Technical Committee Meeting on feasibility and
Motivation for Hybrid Concepts for Nuclear Energy Generation and Transmutation, Madrid, Spain, 17-
19 September 1997 [144].
European Commission projects
The impact of accelerator-based technologies on nuclear fission safety (IABAT) is being
assessed by several research organisations of the European Union. The objectives of the project are to
perform systems studies on ADS, to assess accelerator technology, to study the radiotoxicity of the fuel
cycle and its non-proliferation aspects and to provide basic nuclear and material data useful for ADS
[145].
2.3.5 Nuclear data of minor actinides and long-lived fission products
For the reactor transmutation studies, nuclear data libraries on the elements to be recycled
were compiled from the JEF-1, then, more recently, the JEF-2 databanks. The JENDL Actinide File is
being compiled in addition to the JENDL-3.2. It contains data on neutron-induced reaction for about 90
nuclides from 208 Tl to 255 Fm.
In the reactor transmutation studies on long-lived radioactive waste, nuclear data for MA
nuclides and fission products are of primary importance. However, nuclear data for many MA nuclides
are still not known with the desired accuracy. Accurate experimental data of neutron cross-sections for
MAs are indispensable to establish MA transmutation technology by reactors. Accurate neutron
cross-section data of RE nuclides become also necessary for designing the MA burning core. The data,
however, are quite inadequate both in quality and in quantity.
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