INRAG Working Paper on Partitioning and Transmutation (P&T) Scenarios

Last year, German Federal Agency for Disruptive Innovation (SPRIN-D) published the “Implementation Study on an Accelerator-Driven Neutron Source at the Site of a Former Nuclear Power Plant” proposing an alternative waste management option. This type of radioactive waste management is often summarized under the broader term of Partitioning and Transmutation. In the now published INRAG Working Paper “Scenario Analysis for Partitioning and Transmutation (P&T) in a Phase-out Scenario” we took a closer look at their assumptions and re-analyzed possible scenarios.

Key findings are: 

Duration and scope of phase-out P&T scenarios are heavily influenced by a small set of parameters. 

The amount of transuranium elements that needs to go do final storage is intrinsically limited by cumulative losses and end-of-implementation reactor inventory. 

The framing in the SPRIN-D study does not constitute a national system description. A German-wide implementation necessarily requires a fleet of irradiation facilities and the associated fuel-cycle infrastructure that might last for centuries. 

The whole report can be found here.