Radioecological Validation of the Extraction Parameters of Fission Products and Actinides from Spent Nuclear Fuel from the BREST-OD-300 Reactor

Abstract

The aim of this work is to validate the extraction parameters of fission products and actinides from the spent nuclear reactor fuel of the BREST-OD-300 reactor on the basis of the concept of radio-ecological balance. The dose loads due to long-lived high-level wastes and natural uranium are compared for humans. Different variants of extraction of fissile materials U, Pu, and Np from spent fuel with residual content in the wastes 0.1–1% of the initial content and americium with residual content in the wastes 0.1–10% of the initial content with decay period of the spent fuel in the range 1–100 years were taken as initial data. It was found that for the indicated variants of reprocessing it is impossible to achieve radioecological balance for humans after 500 years without extracting ⁹⁹Tc with residual content in the wastes not exceeding 5% of the initial content in the spent fuel. The time to achieve balance can be reduced to 300 years with additional extraction of ¹³⁷Cs.