It is desirable to devise a solution for the fuel cycle back-end that is acceptable from the society as well as technologically and economically viable. While satisfactory technological solutions exist, they only address portions of the overall problem. A fully integrated effective solution satisfying all public concerns has yet to be developed. In particular, we aim to establish a comprehensiv...

A study of the DUPIC (Direct Use of Spent PWR Fuel In CANDU) cycle was made to analyze cycle performance relative to that of PWR and CANDU fuel cycles in terms of uranium utilization and spent fuel production efficiency. The DUPIC cycle was found to be most efficient in terms of minimizing spent fuel production as well as most efficient (within limits) in terms of maximizing natural uranium uti...

Monitoring of transuranic actinides (TRU–includes neptunium, plutonium, americium, and curium) during the separation of used nuclear fuel has been identified as a critical research area in the U.S. Advanced Fuel Cycle Research and Development program (AFC R&D). Recycling of used fuel by chemically separating it into uranium, fission products, and TRU would be the first step in this new fuel cyc...

In Japan, since plutonium is to be used as a nuclear fuel material under the nuclear energy policy, the objective of partitioning and transmutation (P&T) is oriented to removal and transmutation of mainly MA and long-lived fission products. Under the OMEGA (option making of extra gain from actinides and fission products transmutation) programme, on the basis of the double-strata fuel cycle conc...