SACSESS · Safety of ACtinide Separation proceSSes

Nuclear power plays a key role in limiting EU’s greenhouse gases emissions, and makes an important contribution to improve European Union’s independence, security and diversity of energy supply. However, its social acceptance is closely linked to an enhanced safety in the management of long-lived radioactive waste contributing to resource efficiency and cost-effectiveness of this energy and ensuring a robust and socially acceptable system of protection of man and environment. Among the different strategies, partitioning and transmutation (P&T) allows a reduction of the amount, the radiotoxicity and the thermal power of these wastes, leading to an optimal use of geological repository sites.In line with the Strategic Research Agenda of SNE-TP, the SACSESS collaborative project will provide a structured framework to enhance the fuel cycle safety associated to P&T. In addition, safety studies will be performed for each selected process to identify weak points to be studied further. These data will be integrated to optimise flowsheets and process operation conditions.A training and education programme will be implemented in close collaboration with other European initiatives, addressing safety issues of nuclear energy industry.The multidisciplinary consortium composed of European universities, nuclear research bodies, TSOs and industrial stakeholders will generate fundamental safety improvements on the future design of an Advanced Processing Unit. SACSESS will thus be an essential contribution to the demonstration of the potential benefits of actinide partitioning to the global safety of the long-lived waste management.""