Technological Research Action Necessary for Safe PARrtitioning And Nuclear Transmutation (TRANSPARANT)

Research Project, 2024 – 2028

The impact of low carbon energy sources in combating rapid climate change underlines the role of nuclear energy as part of a sustainable energy mix. Yet, safety and waste concerns must not be downplayed. For the latter, the main goal should be to recycle used fuel, aiming to close the fuel cycle. This eases ultimate radioactive waste management, enhances proliferation resistance and drastically improves economy and sustainability by better use of fuel resources.
The SNETP deployment plan outlines technical needs for fuel recycling including separation of used fuel, fabrication and characterisation of minor actinide bearing fuel and the development of transmutation systems to recover energy and reduce waste.
This proposal aligns with the SNETP deployment plan and responds to the call in HORIZON-EURATOM-2023-NRT-01, topic 05 “Partitioning and transmutation of minor actinides towards industrial application”. It focuses on the efficiency of Am (Americium) separation from used fuel, on experimental and fuel performance code development work studying the behaviour of Am bearing fuel under irradiation and on the safety related research supporting the licensing process of MYRRHA in its role as dedicated accelerator driven transmuter demonstrator. This project builds upon the collaborative efforts initiated in the PATRICIA project, bringing together communities working on partitioning, transmutation, and MYRRHA development.
Finally, dedicated work packages deal with education, focusing on pre-and post-graduates, and with dissemination, targeting the specific stakeholders and the public at large. A further task on knowledge management encompasses both foreground data as well as metadata as to ensure that proper quality assessment and validation is possible. The project will employ a combination of experiments, theoretical studies and numerical simulations harnessing the expertise of 21 research centres and universities from eight EU countries, the UK and Switzerland.
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