| Abstract: | The paper shows the impact of recycling LWR-MOX fuel in a fast burner reactor on the plutonium (Pu) and minor actinide (MA) inventories and on the related radio activities. Reprocessing of the targets for multiple recycling will become increasingly difficult as the burn up increases. Multiple recycling of Pu + MA in fast reactors is a feasible option which has to be studied very carefully: the Pu (except the isotopes Pu-238 and Pu-240), Am and Np levels decrease as a function of the recycle number, while the Cm-244 level accumulates and gradually transforms into Cm-245. Long cooling times (10 + 2 years) are necessary with aqueous processing.The paper discusses the problems associated with multiple reprocessing of highly active fuel types and particularly the impact of Pu-238, Am-241 and Cm-244 on the fuel cycle operations. The calculations were performed with the zero-dimensional ORIGEN-2 code. The validity of the results depends on that of the code and its cross section library. The time span to reduce the initial inventory of Pu + MA by a factor of 10, amounts to 255 years when average burn ups are limited to 150 GWd t−1. |
