Transmutation of radioactive wastes

Nuclear waste transmutation is a technology included in proposals of advanced nuclear fuel cycles, to achieve large reductions in the actinide content and the total radiotoxicity inventory finally disposed to the geological repository. The physical principles, motivation reasons for present attention, and advantages of the application of this technology to the high level waste management, are described in the articles. Different advance fuel cycles proposed for the application of the transmutation techniques are also briefly described. Finally, the article summarizes the present I+D projects (from an EU perspective) and gives and outlook of the research in this field for the near future. (Author)