Euratom FP6 Research Projects and Training Activities Volume III

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Sustainable, closed fuel cycle Almost two billion people around the world have no access to electricity and the problem will worsen as the global population continues to grow. The World Energy Council points out that although global reliance on fossil fuels and large hydro will remain strong until 2020, these will not be able to meet the world’s long-term electricity demand in a sustainable manner. As a consequence, the role of nuclear power must be stabilised with the aim of future expansion. A closed fuel cycle with a clear and agreed solution for waste issues is a prerequisite for making nuclear energy sustainable. This can be reached by deploying advanced P&T systems to reduce the burden of waste on geological storage facilities. This objective is relevant to both countries committed to nuclear energy in the future as well as to those countries not committed to a further deployment of nuclear energy. MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE WASTE Partitioning and transmutation Coordinator Hamid Aït Abderrahim SCK•CEN Boeretang 200 B-2400 Mol Tel. (32-14) 33 22 77 Fax (32-14) 32 15 29 haitabde@sckcen.be www.sckcen.be/pateros Project details Project type: Coordination Action Project start date: 01/09/2006 Duration: 24 months Total budget: EUR 728 450 EC contribution: EUR 600 000 EC Project Officer: Ved Bhatnagar European Commission Directorate-General for Research Unit J. 2 – Fission CDMA 1/46 B-1049 Brussels Tel. (32-2) 299 58 96 Fax (32-2) 295 49 91 I N F O R M A T I O N Partners Ansaldo Nucleare SpA, IT Commissariat à l'énergie atomique, FR Centro de Investigaciones Energéticas Medioambientales y Tecnológicas, ES Centre national de la recherche scientifique, FR Ente per le nuove technologie, l'energia e l'ambiente, IT AREVA NP, FR Forschungszentrum Karlrsuhe GmbH, DE European Commission, Joint Research Centre, BE Kungliga Tekniska Högskolan, SE Nuclear Research & Consultancy Group, NL Ustav jaderného vyzkumu ŘeŽ (Nuclear Research Institute ŘeŽ), CZ Paul Scherrer Institute, CH Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, ES Instituto Tecnologico e Nuclear, PT Nexia Solutions Ltd, UK University of Manchester, UK 47
48 PuMA Sustainability is a key issue in the definition of future nuclear energy systems in Europe. Sustainable management of transuranium elements (TRUs) by reducing the plutonium (Pu) and minor actinides (MA) stockpiles in the nuclear fuel cycle is of particular interest. The (very) hightemperature gas-cooled reactor ((V)HTR) can be used to incinerate Pu and MA materials due to its unique safety features and the nature of its coated particle fuel. The PuMA project aims to provide key results for the utilisation and transmutation of Pu and MA in (V)HTR systems as a promising tool for the development of safe and sustainable nuclear energy. Burning plutonium PLUTONIUM AND MINOR ACTINIDES MANAGEMENT IN THERMAL HIGH-TEMPERATURE REACTORS BASIS FOR A SUSTAINABLE FUEL CYCLE Previous Euratom projects have shown the favourable Pu burning characteristics of thermal (V)HTRs and PuMA will further investigate the core physics of the process in order to demonstrate their potential as Pu/MA transmutation systems. The Pu coated fuel particle design will be optimised and the feasibility of MA fuel fabrication and application explored. Finally, as Pu/MA transmuters will operate in a global system of reactor designs and fuel cycle facilities, fuel cycle studies and socio-economic/environmental assessments will be carried out. These PuMA studies represent part of the Euratom contribution to the Generation IV International Forum (GIF). The PuMA consortium gathers together 16 organisations from nine countries, including research organisations, leading nuclear engineering and fuel cycle companies, a fuel manufacturer, a utility, universities and institutes, and consultancy SMEs. Core physics and future fuel cycles The core physics research aims at optimising the particle fuel and reactor characteristics, and assuring the nuclear stability and safety of a Pu/MA (V)HTR core. Opportunities will be investigated for retrieving relevant data from past irradiation studies on Pu HTR fuel, on which further code qualification exercises can be based. New fuel particle designs will be explored that can withstand very high burn-up rates and obtain optimal adaptation for disposal after irradiation. In particular, helium production in Pu- and MA-based fuel will be assessed and supported by experiment. Fuel irradiation performance codes will permit convergence on optimised design criteria. The impact of the introduction of Pu/MA-burning (V)HTRs on the fuel cycle and the future nuclear energy mix will be assessed, with a focus on fuel cycle symbiosis with future nuclear energy systems in Europe (e.g. LWRs, fast reactors etc.). This assessment involves the quantification of waste streams and radiotoxic inventories as well as the technical, economic, environmental and socio-political impacts of introducing this technology in the future. PuMA will also contribute to developing and maintaining competence in European reactor technology, in particular through a course held in conjunction with the RAPHAEL project. Optimised designs for transmutation performance Based on previous results, the core physics work in PuMA should establish optimised Pu/MA transmutation characteristics in (V)HTRs. Transient analyses will seek to demonstrate the nuclear stability and safety of optimised reactor and fuel designs. Other performance and safetyrelated parameters will be determined, such as the fast neutron flux in fuel particles and the level of helium production as a function of Pu/MA burn-up, as well as an assessment of proliferation resistance. Relevant data from the British, American and Russian programmes on HTR applications will be sought, and benchmarks set. Armed with this information, the PuMA project will produce a design for an optimised Pu/MA-loaded fuel particle kernel composition and layer configuration that will be produced and tested in a follow-up programme. EURATOM FP6 RESEARCH PROJECTS AND TRAINING ACTIVITIES Volume III
Page 1 and 2: PROJECT SYNOPSES Euratom FP6 Resear
Page 3 and 4: EUROPEAN COMMISSION Euratom FP6 Res
Page 5 and 6: CONTENTS Introduction 5 FP6 researc
Page 7 and 8: 6 isolation. However, in parallel t
Page 9 and 10: 8 ❚ CARD - A CA assessing the fea
Page 11 and 12: 10 The funded projects described ar
Page 13 and 14: 12 Forward to FP7 The Seventh Eurat
Page 15 and 16: MARK S MANY ND ITALY SWEDEN CZECH R
Page 17 and 18: 18 ARGONA ARENAS FOR RISK GOVERNANC
Page 19 and 20: 20 CARD COORDINATION ACTION FOR THE
Page 21 and 22: 22 CATT COOPERATION AND TECHNOLOGY
Page 23 and 24: 24 CIP Over a number of European re
Page 25 and 26: 26 MICADO MODEL UNCERTAINTY FOR THE
Page 27 and 28: 28 OBRA EUROPEAN OBSERVATORY FOR LO
Page 29 and 30: 30 PAMINA The main objective of the
Page 31 and 32: 32 SAPIERR-II STRATEGIC ACTION PLAN
Page 33 and 34: 34 THERESA Nuclear power plants, wh
Page 35 and 36: 36 TIMODAZ The management of spent
Page 37 and 38: 38 CANDIDE COORDINATION ACTION ON N
Page 39 and 40: 40 EFNUDAT EUROPEAN FACILITIES FOR
Page 41 and 42: 42 LWR-DEPUTY The LWR-DEPUTY initia
Page 43 and 44: 44 NUDAME The NUDAME project is a t
Page 45: 46 PATEROS PARTITIONING AND TRANSMU
Page 49 and 50: 50 VELLA The VELLA (Virtual Europea
Page 51 and 52: Quantification of risks associated
Page 53 and 54: second was aimed to check the feasi
Page 55 and 56: extreme overreaction to radiotherap
Page 57 and 58: Understanding individual response S
Page 59 and 60: ties and to study how these genes a
Page 61 and 62: NOTE will investigate if ionising r
Page 63 and 64: an assessment will be made of how t
Page 65 and 66: The PROTECT project will assist in
Page 67 and 68: e widely distributed among national
Page 69 and 70: 72 ALISIA ASSESSMENT OF LIQUID SALT
Page 71 and 72: 74 EISOFAR The EISOFAR Specific Sup
Page 73 and 74: 76 ELSY The ELSY project aims to de
Page 75 and 76: 78 HPLWR Phase 2 Supercritical wate
Page 77 and 78: 80 ENEN-II EUROPEAN NUCLEAR EDUCATI
Page 79 and 80: 82 ANTIOXI A DETERMINISTIC MODEL FO
Page 81 and 82: 84 MAGIC The MAGIC project is a two
Page 83 and 84: 86 NULIFE The NULIFE Network of Ex
Page 85 and 86: 88 MTR+I3 INTEGRATED INFRASTRUCTURE
Page 87 and 88: 90 NICODEME TEST FACILITIES IN PRES
Page 89 and 90: 92 PLINIUS FP6 This initiative offe
Page 91 and 92: 94 SNF-TP SUSTAINABLE NUCLEAR FISSI
Page 93 and 94: 96 Glossary The texts in this gloss
Page 95 and 96: 98 Typical characteristics of high-
Page 97 and 98:
Index of projects ALISIA 72 ANTIOXI
Page 99 and 100:
SALES AND SUBSCRIPTIONS Publication
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