Actinide and Fission Product Partitioning

In Japan, R&D activities for partitioning and transmutation (P&T) have been promoted under the OMEGA programme for more than 15 years. These activities were reviewed by the Atomic Energy Commission in Japan in 2000. In accordance with the results of the review, three institutes, the Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute (JAERI), the Japan Nuclear Cycle Development Institute (JNC) and the Central Research Institute of Electric Power Industry (CRIEPI), are continuing the R&D on the P&T technology. This report summarises the recent activities in Japan by these institutes. JAERI is engaging in the R&D on the Double-strata Fuel Cycle concept consisting of the partitioning process of the high-level waste and the dedicated transmutation cycle using the accelerator driven system (ADS) fuelled with the minor actinide (MA) nitride fuel. JNC and CRIEPI are engaging in the R&D on the P&T technology using commercialised fast reactors (FR), where JNC is mainly in charge of the MOX fuel and the aqueous reprocessing, while CRIEPI is mainly in charge of the metallic fuel and the dry reprocessing. The R&D activities on FR are organised under the Feasibility Study on Commercialised Fast Reactor Cycle Systems.