Reducing the Burden of High Level Radioactive Waste with Transmutation - Proposal of Integral Molten Salt Fast Reactor (IMSFR)

Abstract

After the Fukushima nuclear accident, the public acceptance of nuclear energy use has become more severe than ever. The public’s concern stems not only from the worry over the safety of nuclear power plants (NPPs) but also from that over the management of high level radioactive waste (HLW). In order to alleviate the public’s concern over the management of HLW, transmutation of long-lived radioactive nuclides can be an effective measure from the viewpoint of reducing the life, heat and toxicity of HLW. The three systems of fast reactor (FR), accelerator-driven system (ADS) and molten salt reactor (MSR) are compared in terms of the efficiency of transmutation of HLW or minor actinide (MA) waste, the main component of HLW.