Impact of P&T on radioactive waste disposal in a clay formation

Within the EC-sponsored Red-Impact project the impact of the introduction of partitioning and transmutation on radioactive waste management and geological disposal was studied. Five representative fuel cycle scenarios were defined. For each fuel cycle mass flow schemes were prepared, the corresponding neutronic calculations were made and the resulting high-level and intermediate-level waste streams were estimated. In this paper the impact of P&T on geological disposal in a clay formation was investigated. High-level waste arising from advanced fuel cycles generates less heat than spent fuel from the reference "once through" fuel cycle, what results in a reduction of the needed size of the geological repository. The impact of P&T on the long-term radiological consequences of the radioactive waste disposal is about negligible, because the resulting doses are essentially due to mobile long-lived fission and activation products. The doses resulting from human intrusion into the high-level waste repository are significantly reduced by P&T.