ACSEPT - Progress in advanced partitioning and challenges for the future

Document in abstract form only. Full text of publication follows: 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 optimise the use of natural resources. With its multidisciplinary consortium of 34 partners from 12 European countries plus Australia and Japan, the European Research Project 'Actinide Recycling by Separation and Transmutation' (ACSEPT) aims at contributing to the development of this strategy by studying both hydrometallurgical and pyrochemical partitioning routes. To succeed, ACSEPT is organised into three technical domains: i) Considering technically mature aqueous separation processes, ACSEPT works to optimise and select the most promising ones dedicated either to actinide partitioning (for the heterogeneous recycling of actinides in ADS target or specific actinide-bearing blanket fuels in fast reactor) or to grouped actinide separation (for the homogeneous recycling of actinides in fast reactor fuels). In addition, dissolution and conversion studies are under way by taking into account the specific requirements of these different fuels. 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 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 system studies, both in hydro and pyro domains, ACSEPT will therefore deliver relevant flow sheets and recommendations to prepare for future demonstrations at a pilot level. After more than two years of work, significant progress has been achieved in process development with the demonstration of SANEX and innovative SANEX flow sheets. Chemical systems were selected for GANEX and are under study. In pyrometallurgy, the work progresses as well. In addition, efforts were made to increase collaborations, mutualise and homogenise procedures and share good practices. Based on these assessments, it is then time to look at the future challenges to be issued. A training and education programme is implemented to share knowledge among the partitioning community, and present and future generations of researchers. Specific attention is also given to the funding of post-doctorate fellowships, two having been appointed respectively at the end of 2008 and at the end of 2009. Through this training and education programme, the first ACSEPT International Workshop was organised last March in Lisbon, Portugal. It placed an emphasis on students' contributions (two-thirds of the presentations) and allowed young scientists to meet and exchange with internationally recognised experts. (authors)