The research to be done within EUROPART concerns the Partitioning of long-lived radionuclides (LLRN) contained in the nuclear wastes issuing the reprocessing of nuclear spent fuels. After separation, the LLRN will be destroyed in short-lived or stable nuclides by nuclear means (P&T strategy) or conditioned into stable dedicated solid matrices (P&C strategy) The target elements will be the actinides: Am to Cm for the wastes issuing the reprocessing of UOX or MOX fuels, and U to Cm for the reprocessing of spent fuels and targets (ex: the nuclear double strata concept).

The separation techniques to be studied will belong to 2 domains: hydrometallurgy, pyrometallurgy (cf. the previous FP5 programs). The main research axes for both domains will be:

1/   Partitioning of Am-Cm from the high level wastes issuing there processing of high burn-up MOX and multi-recycled MOX fuels,

2/   Partitioning of all actinides together for recycling, for advanced dedicated fuel cycles, i.e. double strata concept.

Assign hydrometallurgy, the research is organized in 5 Work Packages (WPs). 4 WPs (WP1 to WP4) are dedicated to the study of partitioning methods and 1 WP (WP5) concerns the development of co-conversion methods for fuel preparation.

In pyrometallurgy, the research is organized in 4 WPs: WP6 concerns the basic study of the chemistry of actinides in molten halides and liquid metals, WP7 concerns the process development of actinides partitioning, WP8 concerns the study of the conditioning of the wastes issued from pyrochemical processes, WP9 is dedicated to system studies.

There is a strong management team that is concerned not only with the scientific, technical and financial issues of EUROPART, but also with other issues such as ethical matters, Science and Society, gender issues, and benefits for Europe. Training and education of the young researchers participating to EUROPART will be also an important part of the project.