A breakthrough to realize the nuclear transmutation for reducing radioactive wastes
—Opening of material property database for transmutation fuel which enables fuel performance analysis—

“Accelerator driven systems (ADSs)” are being researched and developed in Japan and other countries to reduce the volume and toxicity of radioactive wastes. Understanding the fuel behavior under irradiation condition is necessary for the design and development of nitride fuels containing minor actinides (Mas).

The Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) has developed the material properties database of the MA-bearing nitride fuels called “Nitride Fuel Properties Database,” by describing numerous properties as functions of temperature and composition, which covers the assumed range of the fuels. The database is now open to the public on the web site.

This database enables us to perform the fuel behavior analysis on the simulation code developed by JAEA. This helps JAEA to contribute to domestic and international R&D activities on ADS. Furthermore, the database is also expected to contribute to R&D on the accident-tolerant fuels (ATF) for future light water reactors, because uranium nitride (UN) is considered as one of the possible candidates for ATF.