The concept of partitioning/transmutation in radwaste management

It is trite to say that radwaste is more difficult to handle than conventional industrial waste because of its radioactivity. If many toxic chemical compounds can be destroyed by simple thermal incineration, non-radioactive substances whose radioactivity is linked to the presence of toxic elements give rise, because they undergo ''infinite decay'', to the same problems as long-lived radwaste. Radioactivity, because it involves the self-destruction of radionuclides, is more an advantage, as long as it does not result in stable toxic daughter elements, and as long as radioactive decay remains compatible with their reliable confinement. Disposal of A waste (low level waste), for which the radioactive decay period of the beta and/or gamma emitting radionuclides is of human-scale time periods, has become an industrial practice and there is no conceptual problem for this waste. However, management of B and C waste (alpha and high level waste) and, their storage, remain to day in the design stage. It is because they contain sizeable quantities of alpha, beta and gamma emitting radionuclides with radioactive decay periods much greater than human-scale time periods and because C waste generates heat, that the final stage of their management poses problems. These problems are of a complex nature for reasons of 1) science, 2) ethics 3) economics 4) sociology. The idea of modifying alpha and beta radioactivity in C waste to the point where it could disappear is not in itself a new idea. Over the past twenty years, in response to studies on the disposal of vitrified nuclear waste, this option has been raised on several occasions. It has suddenly resurfaced in the light as the topic of Partitioning Transmutation Concept (PTC). Japan and more recently France announced for the first time consistent research programmes. The idea of reduction of alpha radioactivity of the actual B waste is no more a new idea. It has recently come in light as a complementary idea, possibly inseparable, of the PTC. 21 refs