Partitioning of High Level Waste
The partitioning and transmutation (P&T) nuclear fuel
cycle is to separate the minor actinides and long-lived
nuclides from high level waste (HLW), and then transmute
these elements into stable or short lived nuclides in
a reactor or an accelerator to dramatically reduce the
long-term hazard and the volume of highly radioactive
waste.
The research on the partitioning of HLW started in the
early 1980s at the institute. A commercial reagent, trialkyl
phosphine (TRPO), was found to have high affinity to actinides.
Therefore, a partitioning process, TRPO extraction process,
has been established to extract uranium and the transuranium
elements from HLW. This process is considered as one of
the most promising partitioning processes in the world.
The actinides can be separated into three groups: Am(Cm)£«lanthanides,
Np£«Pu and U. The further effective separation of Am (Cm)
from lanthanides is a key step to realize the transmutation
of minor actinides. To achieve that, a highly effective
separation technology for Am (Cm)/lanthanides by extraction
with a commercial reagent, Cyanex 301, has been developed
in recent years, and it is universally acknowledged as
a breakthrough in this field.
