[en] Conclusion: • 4 consolidated flowsheets (r-SANEX, i-SANEX, 1c-SANEX, GANEX2); • 3 hots-tests, 1 spiked test (hydro); • A huge amount of work in organic synthesis and screening (hydro); • The best candidate ligand families considered as identified (hydro); • Relevant options for exhaustive electrolysis and actinide back-extraction from aluminum identified (pyro); • Relevant options for salt purification and waste conditioning (pyro); • Progresses in head-end steps; • Outputs for other FP7 projects; • High involvement in T&E issues; • High level of dissemination

No abstract available

[en] The Nuclear Energy Direction of the Commissariat a l'Energie Atomique has currently identified two potential applications of the pyro-technology: (1) reprocessing of irradiated fuels or targets used for the minor actinides transmutation, (2) reprocessing of spent Generation IV Gas Cooled Reactor Fuels, where all the actinides should be recycled together. Therefore a R and D program has been launched in 1999 to re-assess the claimed advantages of the pyro-technology with regard to the new stakes. Originally proposed and developed in Marcoule, the program is now well supported by French collaborations, by European contracts and by international bilateral collaborations. The investigations are conducted for a best understanding of the actinide chemistry in non-aqueous media, for testing new promising separation techniques and for comparing existing techniques taking into account the new separation and recovery constraints. CEA proposes the reductive extraction in molten fluorides by liquid aluminum as actinides/fission products separation technique; it really offers potentialities for a grouped actinides recovery and sufficient separation from fission products. This paper is describing the recent progress and development obtained in that field (process integration studies, actinide separation, apparatus development and salt confinement). (author)

[en] Full text of publication follows: Nuclear energy contributes to most than 75% of the French electricity thanks to the operation of 58 generation 2 reactors located on 19 sites built from the 70's to the end of the 90's. France also developed for a long time a fully integrated nuclear industry covering the whole nuclear fuel cycle, from the ore mining to the fabrication of the fuel for the front-end, from the reprocessing up to the MOX fuel fabrication and storage facility and in the near-future geological repository for the back-end. This investment allows France to produce a low-carbon electricity with the second lowest GHG emissions intensity, in the range of 90 g CO_2/KWh. Such a very beneficial figure is directly related to the high contribution of nuclear in the electricity mix combined with renewables energies, in particular hydro. Greenhouse gases emissions are very relevant to assess the respective influence on the global climate change, but they do not address the whole potential environmental impact of any activity. However, such a question is crucial for assessing the respective sustainability of such an activity, in particular nuclear energy which is thought to be very detrimental by a large part of the public opinion. In order to address this question, we developed a dedicated life cycle assessment (LCA) tools referred to as NELCAS, the specificity of which is to focus on the first order parameters and avoiding any 'black-box' effect which can exist in commercial LCA tool. Thanks to the recent transparency and nuclear safety law (2006), in- and out- fluxes of matter and energy for any of the fuel cycle facilities are now publicly available. We hence used this significant set of measured data to feed our model and assess the most usual environmental indicators such as land use, different types of atmospheric emissions (GHG, SOx, NOx, particles...) and aqueous release (chemical effluents, eutrophication potential,...)... We also specifically quantify the specific indicators for nuclear activities, i.e. radioactive aqueous and atmospheric release and nuclear waste. We consider the whole fuel cycle as well as the contribution of the whole lifetime of any plant, from cradle to grave (construction, operation, dismantling). We were hence able to quantify what is the actual and current environmental impact of nuclear energy on a very large set of environmental indicators, and compare it to already published data for other energy sources. This demonstrates the very beneficial impact of nuclear energy to the overall environmental preservation beyond the well-known CO_2 emissions, and allows to specifically evidence the positive influence of the recycling operations. (authors)

[en] Actinide recycling by separation and transmutation is considered world wide and particularly in several European countries as one of the most promising strategies to reduce the inventory of radioactive waste, thus contributing to making nuclear energy sustainable. By joining together European universities, nuclear research bodies and major industrial players in a multi-disciplinary consortium, the FP7 EURATOM Fission Project ACSEPT provides the sound basis and fundamental improvements for future demonstrations of fuel treatment in strong connection with fuel fabrication techniques. In accordance with the Strategic Research Agenda of the Sustainable Nuclear Energy Technology Platform (SNE-TP), the timelines of this four-year R and D project (2008-2012) should allow the offering of technical solutions in terms of separation process that may be reviewed by governments, European utilities as well as technology providers at that time horizon. By showing a technically feasible recycling of actinides strategy, ACSEPT will certainly produce positive arguments in the sense that European decision makers, and more globally public opinion, could be convinced that technical solutions for a better management of nuclear wastes are now technologically feasible. ACSEPT is thus an essential contribution to the demonstration, in the long term, of the potential benefits of actinide recycling to minimise the burden on geological repositories. To succeed, ACSEPT is organised in three technical domains: i) Considering technically mature aqueous separation processes, ACSEPT will optimise and select the most promising ones dedicated either to actinide partitioning or to group actinide separation. These developments are appropriately balanced with an exploratory research focused on the design of new molecules. ii) Concerning pyrochemical separation processes, ACSEPT first focuses on the enhancement of the two reference cores of process selected within EUROPART. R and D efforts shall also be brought to key scientific and technical points compulsory for building a whole separation process. iii) All experimental results will be integrated by carrying out engineering and systems studies on hydro- and pyro-processes to prepare for future demonstration at a pilot level. In parallel, with a view to consolidate future actinide recycling strategies, ACSEPT is in charge of the design of the minor-actinide-containing pins, prior to their fabrication in the future FAIRFUELS FP7 project. A training and education programme is also being implemented to share the knowledge within the partitioning community and present and future generations of researchers. Specific attention will be given to the funding of multi-partite post-doctorate fellowships. (authors)

[en] Actinide recycling by separation and transmutation is considered worldwide and particularly in several European countries as one of the most promising strategies to reduce the inventory of radioactive waste, thus contributing to the sustainability of nuclear energy. Consistently with potentially viable recycling strategies, the Collaborative Project ACSEPT will provide a structured research and development framework to develop chemical separation processes compatible with fuel fabrication techniques, with a view to their future demonstration at the pilot level. Two strategies are proposed for the recycling of the actinides issuing from various forms of future nuclear fuels: -) their homogeneous recycling in mixed fuels via a prior group separation of the actinides and -) their heterogeneous recycling in targets or core blankets via their selective separation from fission products. Two major technologies are considered to meet these challenges: hydrometallurgical processes and pyrochemical processes. A training and education programme will also be implemented to share the knowledge among communities and generations so as to maintain the nuclear expertise at the fore-front of Europe. The challenging objectives of ACSEPT will be addressed by a multi-disciplinary consortium composed of European universities, nuclear research bodies and major industrial players. This consortium will generate fundamental improvements for the future design of a potential Advanced Processing Pilot Unit

[en] Actinide recycling by partitioning and transmutation is considered as one of the most promising strategies to reduce the inventory of radioactive waste, thus contributing to make nuclear energy sustainable. To make advances beyond the current state of the art in pyrochemical separations processes, the Domain 2 (DM2) of ACSEPT has been built on considering a process approach based on system studied. Four work packages that represent the main steps of a process block diagram have been identified: head-end steps, core process development, and salt treatment for recycling and waste conditioning. The results obtained in this domain will be integrated in DM 3 (Process) in order to orientate the R and D studies of DM2 and to propose and validate flowsheets at the end of the project. The state of the art on pyrochemical separation within the European Community and the working program of ACSEPT in pyrometallurgy are presented in this work. (authors)

[en] Actinide recycling by separation and transmutation is considered worldwide and particularly in several European countries as one of the most promising strategies to reduce the inventory of radioactive waste and to optimize the use of natural resources, thus contributing to making nuclear energy sustainable. In accordance with the Strategic Research Agenda (SRA) of the Sustainable Nuclear Energy Technology Platform (SNE-TP), the timelines of the FP7-EURATOM project ACSEPT (2008-2012) should allow the offering of technical solutions in terms of advanced closed fuel cycle technologies including the recycling of actinides and that may be reviewed by Governments, European utilities as well as Technology Providers at the time horizon 2012. By joining in its consortium 34 partners from 12 European countries plus Australia and Japan, ACSEPT is thus an essential contribution to the demonstration, in the long term, of the potential benefits of actinide recycling. To succeed, ACSEPT is organized into three technical domains: (i) Considering technically mature aqueous separation processes, ACSEPT works to optimize and select the most promising ones dedicated either to actinide partitioning or to grouped actinide separation. A substantial review was undertaken either to be sure that the right molecule families are being studied, or, on the contrary, to identify new candidates. After 18 months, results of the first hot tests should allow the validation of some process options. In addition, the first results on dissolution studies will be available as well as the progress in conversion techniques. (ii) Concerning pyrochemical separation processes, ACSEPT is focused on the enhancement of the two reference cores of process selected within EUROPART with specific attention to the exhaustive electrolysis in molten chloride (quantitative recovery of the actinides with the lowest amount of fission products) and to actinide back-extraction from an An-Al alloy. R and D efforts are also brought to key scientific and technical issues compulsory for building a complete separation process (head-end steps, salt treatment for recycling and waste management). (iii) By integrating all the experimental results within engineering and systems studies, both in hydro and pyro domains, ACSEPT will therefore deliver relevant flowsheets and recommendations to prepare for future demonstration at a pilot level, in relation with strategies developed through the SNE-TP. In addition, a training and education programme is implemented to share the knowledge among the partitioning community, and present and future generations of researchers. Specific attention is given to the funding of post-doctorate fellowships, the first one having been appointed at the end of 2008. (authors)

[en] In this early 21. century, our societies have to face a tremendous and increasing energy need while mitigating the global climate change and preserving the environment. Addressing this challenge requires an energy transition from the current fossil energy-based system to a carbon-free energy production system, based on a relevant energy mix combining renewable and nuclear energy. However, such an energy transition will only occur if it is accepted by the population. Powerful and reliable tools, such as life cycle assessments (LCA), aiming at assessing the respective merits of the different energy mix for most of the environmental impact indicators are therefore mandatory for supporting a risk-informed decision-process at the societal level. Before studying the deployment of a given energy mix, a prerequisite is to perform LCAs on each of the components of the mix. This paper addresses two potential nuclear energy components: a nuclear fuel cycle based on the Generation III European Pressurized Reactors (EPR) and a nuclear fuel cycle based on the Generation IV Sodium Fast Reactors (SFR). The basis of this study relies on the previous work done on the current French nuclear fuel cycle using the bespoke NELCAS tool specifically developed for studying nuclear fuel cycle environmental impacts. Our study highlights that the EPR already brings a limited improvement to the current fuel cycle thanks to a higher efficiency of the energy transformation and a higher burn-up of the nuclear fuel (- 20% on most of the chosen indicators) whereas the introduction of the GEN IV fast reactors will bring a significant breakthrough by suppressing the current front-end of the fuel cycle thanks to the use of depleted uranium instead of natural enriched uranium (this leads to a decrease of the impact from 17% on water consumption and withdrawal and up to 96% on SOx emissions). The specific case of the radioactive waste is also studied, showing that only the partitioning and transmutation of the americium in the blanket fuel of the SFR can reduce the footprint of the geological disposal (saving up to a factor of 7 on the total repository volume). Having now at disposition five models (open fuel cycle, current French twice through fuel cycle, EPR twice through fuel cycle, multi-recycling SFR fuel cycle and at a longer term, multi-recycling SFR fuel cycle including americium transmutation), it is possible to model the environmental impact of any fuel cycle combining these technologies. In the next step, these models will be combined with those of other carbon-free energies (wind, solar, biomass... ) in order to estimate the environmental impact of future energy mixes and also to analyze the impact on the way these scenarios are deployed (transition pathways). (authors)

[en] Nuclear energy has more than ever to demonstrate that it can contribute safely and on a sustainable way to answer the international increase in energy needs. Actually, in addition to an increased safety of the reactors themselves, its acceptance is still closely associated to our capability to reduce the lifetime of the nuclear waste, to manage them safely and to propose options for a better use of the natural resources. Spent fuel reprocessing can help to reach these objectives. At the European level, ACSEPT and ACTINET-I3 have worked together to improve our knowledge in actinide chemistry and advanced separation process development. (authors)