The Hydrometallurgical and Pyro-metallurgical Processes Studied Worldwide for the Partitioning of High Active Nuclear Wastes

For more than 10 years, a revival of the interest for the partitioning of high active nuclear wastes (HAWs) exists worldwide in connection with possible improvements of the management of the HAWs actually produced and with futuristic nuclear fuel cycles. The main aim of the partitioning processes is to separate, from the complex mixtures of HAWs, the long-lived radionuclides (LLRNs), belonging either to the minor actinides (MAs) or to the fission products (FPs) families of elements, in order to prepare fuels and/or targets suitable for their subsequent transmutation (P&T strategy). An other possible strategy consists in the special conditioning of the separated LLRNs into stable dedicated matrices (P&C strategy). The LLRNs considered for partitioning are the MAs, neptunium, americium and curium, but also the FPs, caesium, technetium and iodine. Most of the partitioning processes studied so far belongs to the domain of hydrometallurgy, but, recently, a new impetus was observed in the field of pyrometallurgical processes. The main aim of this talk is to present a brief status of the development of both “hydro” and “pyro” processes for the partitioning of LLRNs developed worldwide, with a special emphasis on the benefits/drawbacks of each process.