Evaluating Material Attractiveness of Minor Actinide Nuclear Fuel Intended for a Waste Transmutation Lead-Cooled Fast Reactor

Long-lived high-level waste from commercial nuclear power reactors is a problem that concerns stakeholders and scientists working in the back end of the nuclear fuel cycle. Nuclear waste transmutation is under investigation to tackle this problem, transforming nuclides that represent a long-term source of radioactivity, radiotoxicity, and heat into short-lived or stable nuclides. However, the transmutation process will require that several long-lived isotopes be separated from the spent nuclear fuel, which raises proliferation concerns.