Survey of Transuranium Nuclides in Low Level Liquid Effluents from the Tokai Reprocessing Plant

Abstract

We surveyed the concentration levels of Transuranium (TRU) nuclides in the effluent discharged from the Tokai Reprocessing Plant (TRP) from 1998 to 2003 for Light Water Reactor (LWR) Fuel Reprocessing. The survey was performed for upcoming the effluent monitoring in Fast Breeder Reactor (FBR) Fuel Reprocessing. It was confirmed that the TRU nuclides concentration discharged from the TRP was 1/150∼1/10⁶ much lower than the concentration limits authorized in governmental notification. Then, we compared the normalized discharge amounts by the unit of generated energy from the TRP with those from the foreign reprocessing plants. As a result, the TRP has reduced the amounts of discharged nuclides, by the order of 1/100-1/10⁷ compared with foreign ones. This survey provided the important and basic data in order to compare the effluent of TRU nuclides in FBR and the present nuclear fuel cycles.