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5. Conclusions
The HLW arising from advanced fuel cycles generates less heat than the spent fuel arising from the
reference once-through fuel cycle. This would allow the dimensions of the geological repository to
be reduced.
The total doses due to geological disposal of spent fuel, HLW and ILW are dominated by contributions
from mobile fission and activation products (actinides being immobile due to very high sorption
and solubility limitation). As a consequence the transmutation of actinides in fast reactors or
ADS would have little impact on the resulting doses in the case of the considered reference scenario.
On the other hand, the removal or capture of 129 I upon reprocessing could have a much
stronger impact on the maximum dose. Considerable amounts of mobile activation products, such
as 14 C, are calculated to be generated in advanced fuel cycles and, consequently, to give a significant
contribution to the total dose; this observation confirms the importance of developing low activation
fuel matrices and construction materials for future nuclear reactors.
The radiotoxicity in the HLW from advanced fuel cycles, after a few centuries cooling time, is drastically
reduced by the transmutation of the actinides. Although this would lead to a considerable
reduction of the potential hazard in the case of inadvertent human intrusion, the use of this variant
scenario as a decision making tool for long-term radioactive waste management is highly debatable.
6. Acknowledgements
This project has been co-funded by the European Commission and performed as part of the 6 th
Euratom Framework Programme for nuclear research and training activities (2002-2006) under contract
FI6W-CT-2004-002408.
References
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