This presents the advantage of decoupling the management of the minor actinides from the conventional fuel and not impacting the core reactivity coefficients. In both cases, the design and analyses of potential transmutation systems have been carried out in the frame of Gen IV fast reactor using a “perturbation” approach in which nominal power reactor parameters are modified to accommodate the loading of minor actinides. | Sensitivity analysis of minor actinides transmutation to physical and technological parameters EPJ Nuclear Sci. Technol. 1 15 2015 Nuclear Sciences T. Kooyman and L. Buiron published by EDP Sciences 2015 amp Technologies DOI epjn e2015-50055-0 Available online at http REGULAR ARTICLE Sensitivity analysis of minor actinides transmutation to physical and technological parameters Timothée Kooyman and Laurent Buiron CEA Cadarache DEN DER SPRC LEDC Bat. 230 13108 Saint-Paul-lez-Durance France Received 24 September 2015 Received in final form 30 October 2015 Accepted 3 November 2015 Published online 11 December 2015 Abstract. Minor actinides transmutation is one of the three main axis defined by the 2006 French law for management of nuclear waste along with long-term storage and use of a deep geological repository. Transmutation options for critical systems can be divided in two different approaches a homogeneous transmutation in which minor actinides are mixed with the fuel. This exhibits the drawback of polluting the entire fuel cycle with minor actinides and also has an important impact on core reactivity coefficients such as Doppler Effect or sodium void worth for fast reactors when the minor actinides fraction increases above 3 to 5 depending on the core b heterogeneous transmutation in which minor actinides are inserted into transmutation targets which can be located in the center or in the periphery of the core. This presents the advantage of decoupling the management of the minor actinides from the conventional fuel and not impacting the core reactivity coefficients. In both cases the design and analyses of potential transmutation systems have been carried out in the frame of Gen IV fast reactor using a perturbation approach in which nominal power reactor parameters are modified to accommodate the loading of minor actinides. However when designing such a transmutation strategy parameters from all steps of the fuel cycle must be taken into .
