Journal of Alloys and Compounds 444–445 (2007) 23–27 Futuristic back-end of the nuclear fuel cycle with the partitioning of minor actinides C. Madic a,∗ , B. Boullis a , P. Baron a , F. Testard b , M.J. Hudson c , J.-O. Liljenzin d , B. Christiansen e , M. Ferrando f , A. Facchini g , A. Geist h , G. Modolo i , A.G. Espartero j , J. De Mendoza k a CEA-DEN, Marcoule and Saclay, France b CEA-DSM, Saclay, France c University of Reading, UK d Chalmers University of Technol., G¨ oteborg, Sweden e JRC-ITU, Karlsruhe, Germany f ENEA, Saluggia, Italy g PoliMi, Milano, Italy h INE, FZ-Karlsruhe, Germany i ISR, FZ-J ¨ ulich, Germany j CIEMAT, Madrid, Spain k University Auto. de Madrid, Madrid, Spain Received 28 June 2006; received in revised form 8 May 2007; accepted 8 May 2007 Available online 17 May 2007 Abstract For future back-end of the nuclear fuel cycle, the partitioning of minor actinides: Np, Am and Cm, followed by their transmutation will minimize importantly the radiotoxicity of nuclear glass waste. In this paper, the research done in France and in Europe will be presented: (i) partitioning of Np by modified PUREX process, (ii) partitioning of Am and Cm by the DIAMEX and SANEX hydrometallurgical processes. © 2007 Published by Elsevier B.V. Keyword: Actinide alloys and compounds 1. Introduction The reprocessing of nuclear spent fuels is industrially carried out in several countries in the world. The most important repro- cessing facility is situated in France at La Hague (Ar´ eva-Cog´ ema Company). At La Hague, two reprocessing plants are working: (1) UP3 to reprocess spent fuels from other countries that France, (2) UP2-800 for reprocessing EdF spent fuels (France). Today, the aims of the reprocessing are: (i) to recover the elements U and Pu, by the hydrometallurgical PUREX process, which have large potentiality to produce ∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +33 1 69 08 82; fax: +33 1 69 08 32. E-mail address: charles.madic@cea.fr (C. Madic). more energy and which can be recycled as new fuels (for example MOX fuel for the recycled Pu), (ii) to condition the nuclear wastes into solid matrices. Most of the radionuclides from the wastes are conditioned in glass. The glasses contain most of the Fission Products (FPs) and the minor actinides (MAs): Np, Am and Cm. These glass wastes will be in the future disposed of into deep geological repositories. Fig. 1 presents the radiotoxicity of an UOX spent fuel with a burn-up of 45 GWd/t. After three centuries, the radiotoxicity is mainly due to the presence of the MAs in these glass wastes. So, a new strategy is under consideration in numerous nuclear countries: elimina- tion of the MAs from the glass wastes. After their partitioning, the MAs can be considered as destructible by nuclear facilities, such as the accelerator driven systems (ADSs). So, in France, 0925-8388/$ – see front matter © 2007 Published by Elsevier B.V. doi:10.1016/j.jallcom.2007.05.051