Studies of heavy radioactive nuclides transmutation using relativistic particles at the JINR (Dubna)

We overview briefly the investigations of the process of transmutation of long-lived fission products into short-lived or stable nuclides, which are conducted for several years at the synchrophasotron of the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR), Dubna, using the beams of protons and 12C ions of 3.67 GeV and 18 GeV energy, respectively. As a result of these experiments it has been found that the measured transmutation rates for these nuclides irradiated with the help of rather simple and versatile experimental arrangement allows to estimate the transmutation rate capacity for a 10 m A -1.5 GeV proton accelerator coupled to a Pb target as: 4% of 129I into 130Xe for one year and 6% of 237Np into 238Np during one month. Current methodical and computational problems arising in the relevant works are also discussed. Some remarks concerning similar investigations conducted in other laboratories (in particular, at CERN [3]) are made, too