Impact of high burnup irradiation and multiple recycling in fast burner reactors on the plutonium and minor actinide inventories

The paper shows the impact of recycling MOX fuel in a fast burner reactor on the plutonium and minor actinide inventories and on the related radioactivities. Reprocessing of the targets for multiple recycling will become increasingly difficult as the burnup increases. Multiple recycling of Pu + minor actinides (MA) in fast reactors is a feasible option which has to be studied very carefully: the Pu (except the isotopes Pu-238 and Pu-240), Am and Np levels decrease as a function of the recycle number, while the Cm-244 level accumulates and gradually transforms into Cm-245. Long cooling times are necessary with aqueous processing. (authors)