The used fuel discharged from nuclear power plants constitutes the main contribution to nuclear waste in countries which do not undertake reprocessing. As such, its disposal requires isolation from the biosphere in stable deep geological formations for long periods of time (some hundred thousand years) until its radioactivity decreases through the process of radioactive decay. Ways for significantly reducing the volumes and radiotoxicities of the waste and to shorten the very long times for which the waste must be stored safely are being investigated. This is the motivation behind the partitioning and transmutation (P&T) activities worldwide. This paper addresses the potential impact of P&T on the long-term disposal of nuclear waste. In particular, it evaluates how realistic P&T scenarios can lead to a reduction in the time required for the waste to be stored safely. The calculations have been done independently by three research groups: ITU and FZK in Germany, and by the CEA in France.

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The Displacement per Atom (DPA) rate is conventionally computed with DPA cross sections in reactor applications. The method of direct calculation with energyangular distributions given in the Center of Mass (CM) frame is proposed and recommended in the present work. The methods for refining and verifying the calculations of DPA cross sections are proposed: (i) Gauss-Legendre-Quadrature-based Piecewise Integration (GLQPI) for ensuring the numeric convergence of integral over emission angle due to the discontinuity of integrand; (ii) verification of the convergence for trapezoidal integration over the secondary energy; (iii) interpolation of doubledifferential cross sections. For 56 Fe of JEFF-3.1.1, the current numeric integration over emission angle is shown not convergent, whereas the direct trapezoidal over the secondary energy and the direct interpolation of energy-angle-integrated damage are shown accurate. On the other hand, it is shown that the DPA cross sections are overestimated if isotropic angular distributions are assumed. However, the DPA cross section is not sensitive to the high-order Legendre polynomials because the former is an angle-integrated quantity. Numerical results of neutron elastic scattering show that 2 orders of Legendre polynomials can give the DPA rates of 56 Fe within 0.5% overestimation for fission reactors, while 4 orders are required for fusion reactors. For neutron inelastic scatterings-induced DPA, the first order Legendre polynomial is sufficient for both fission and fusion reactors.

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