An evaluation of early application of the transuranic burning concept

This paper discusses the basic questions addressed by the evaluation which were: What would be the benefits of transuranic burning to the high-level waste (HLW) disposal program, and would they justify processing the current spent fuel from the nation's light water reactors (LWRs) plus an early liquid metal reactor (LMR) deployment program to utilize the separated transuranics? The evaluation concluded that adoption of a process-before-disposal policy for the current spent fuel would accrue only modest waste disposal benefits, and would likely incur a substantial cost penalty. However, the evaluation identified several long-term attributes of the LMR, thereby reinforcing the importance of the LMR development program