Impact of Electrochemical Partitioning & Accelerator-Driven Transmutation of HAW on the Necessity for Deep Geological Storage

In a recent study commissioned by Germany’s Federal Agency for Breakthrough Innovation, the impact of a plant for electrochemical partitioning & accelerator-driven transmutation developed by the Swiss company Transmutex on the HAW of a specific German interim storage facility was evaluated (www.sprind.org/en/words/magazine/sprind-and-transmutex). Applying such a circular economy concept as we do in all other parts of society enables to recycle most of the so-called waste (ruthenium, rhodium, uranium, cesium, strontium) i.e. no need to store it away.

The non-recyclable HAW would essentially be transmuted within the plant’s minimum operating lifetime of 50 years. Subsequent generations would be protected by reducing the radioactivity of the waste from 1 million to less than 1 thousand years: all minor actinides and the water-soluble fission products such as Se-79, I-129 and Tc-99 would be transmuted to over 99 % in a safe, environmentally friendly and proliferation-resistant process. A solution to the problem of the last core is proposed as well.

A deterministic instead of probabilistic safety analysis of the repository and the reduction in volume of long-lived nuclear waste by almost 90 % should enable further cost savings in interim and (less deep) final storage and consequently geothermal use of the disposal containers.

This concept can particularly be applied in countries like Germany and the U.S. where final storage solutions only exist on paper and have essentially been postponed to the next century.