Materials Test Station

Mission

Used nuclear fuel from commercial light water nuclear reactors is radioactive and its disposal is problematic. The mitigations currently considered include interim storage or burial in geologic repositories. Reducing the harmful characteristics of this waste, like its radiotoxicity and heat load, is desirable. One way to reduce these characteristics is to recycle the waste as fuel in advanced fast neutron spectrum nuclear reactors (aka fast reactors).

Fast reactors are generally recognized as the most efficient way to transmute problematic elements in high-level waste: neptunium, americium, curium. However, these elements must first be manufactured into a form of nuclear fuel suitable for burning in a fast reactor and then tested to see how these novel fuels perform. The U.S. does not have a facility to conduct testing in a fast reactor-like environment. A new domestic fast reactor would cost over $1B and take at least a decade to build. Testing in foreign fast reactors that are outside of DOE control is expensive and does not provide a stable and reliable platform for long-term research.

Materials Test Station: the Preferred Alternative

When completed, the Materials Test Station (MTS) at the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center, Los Alamos National Laboratory will meet mission need. MTS will provide the only fast-reactor-like irradiation capability outside of Russia and Asia. MTS can be completed in four years at a cost of $75M to $95M.

MTS is not a fast reactor, but it will provide a fuel-testing environment that in many respects is prototypic of fast reactors. MTS will provide a safe, cost-effective, near-term domestic alternative to irradiate and understand novel fuels as they are burned in an environment typical of a fast reactor.