Significant reduction and recycling of high-level radioactive waste through nuclear transmutation

This paper introduces the Cabinet Office's R&D promotion program, Impulsing Paradigm Change through Disruptive Technologies Program (ImPACT), with a focus on its outline, program procedure and strategy, and results. The purpose of the ImPACT Program is as follows; Among the long-lived fission products (LLFP) contained in high-level radioactive waste (HLW), Se-79, Zr-93, Pd-107, and Cs-135, which have not studied in detail to date on their separation and nuclear transmutation, have been chosen as targets, and they are transformed to short half-life nuclides and stable nuclides using an accelerator to develop a process to recycle useful elements. The program consists of the following five projects: (1) Development of a technology for chemically separating and recovering LLFP from HLW and development of an even-odd separation method for separating even number nuclides and odd number nuclides instead of the isotope separation method, (2) Acquisition of nuclear reaction data, (3) Development of a theoretical model and simulation code, (4) Development of nuclear transmutation system and accelerator, and (5) Scenario formulation and process plant concept design. (A.O.)