RADIOACTIVITY CONFINEMENT CAPABILITY OF PARC CONCEPT FOR THE FUTURE REPROCESSING

Aiming at TRU waste arising reduction and economical competitiveness f or the future reprocessing, is proposed an advanced process concept wh ich is named PARC (Partitioning Conundrum Key) process. Enhancement of confinement capability for long-lived nuclides in a simplified Purer process is the primary subject of this R&D project. Technologies for l ong-lived nuclide recovery are under development, focused on C-14 and I-129 in head end, Np-237 and Tc-99 in extraction, and Am-241 the daug hter of Pu-241 in effluents. Those nuclides focused here are mobile in the environment and highly concerned as potential hazardous among the long-lived nuclides in spent fuels. New functions in PARC process con cept are designed to mitigate the environmental impacts of reprocessin g wastes and also to improve economy of reprocessing in the future. (C ) 1997 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.