Partitioning and transmutation contribution of MYRRHA to an EU strategy for HLW management and main achievements of MYRRHA related FP7 and H2020 projects: MYRTE, MARISA, MAXSIMA, SEARCH, MAX, FREYA, ARCAS

Abstract

Today, nuclear power produces 11% of the world's electricity. Nuclear power plants produce virtually no greenhouse gases or air pollutants during their operation. Emissions over their entire life cycle are very low. Nuclear energy's potential is essential to achieving a deeply decarbonized energy future in many regions of the world as of today and for decades to come, the main value of nuclear energy lies in its potential contribution to decarbonizing the power sector. Nuclear energy's future role, however, is highly uncertain for several reasons: chiefly, escalating costs and, the persistence of historical challenges such as spent fuel and radioactive waste management. Advanced nuclear fuel recycling technologies can enable full use of natural energy resources while minimizing proliferation concerns as well as the volume and longevity of nuclear waste. Partitioning and Transmutation (P&T) has been pointed out in numerous studies as the strategy that can relax constraints on geological disposal, e.g. by reducing the waste radiotoxicity and the footprint of the underground facility. Therefore, a special effort has been made to investigate the potential role of P&T and the related options for waste management all along the fuel cycle. Transmutation based on critical or sub-critical fast spectrum transmuters should be evaluated in order to assess its technical and economic feasibility and capacity, which could ease deep geological disposal implementation.