Re: Is it possible to recycle nuclear waste ?

There are many different types of nuclear waste, but I am going to assume 
that your question is referring to spent nuclear fuel that is being 
discharged from nuclear reactors. A typical 1000-MWe Pressurized Water 
Reactor unit generates about 21 tons of spent fuel in one year of 
operation.   This same energy output corresponds to the burning of about 2 
million tons of coal in a conventional power plant giving rise to 120,000 t 
of ashes, 5.4 million tons of CO2 and 50,000 t of SO2.  So it is obvious 
that the nuclear waste is relatively very small in volume and mass compared 
to other energy source's wastes.

This 21t of spent fuel contains about: 20t of enriched uranium; 230kg of 
plutonium; 23 kg of minor actinides; 750 kg of fission products.  The 
enriched uranium and plutonium are reusable as nuclear fuel.  So, some of 
the nuclear waste can be RECYCLED.  

Proper management of spent fuel ensures that the biosphere is protected 
under economically acceptable conditions without entailing unfavorable 
short-term consequences. Since the spent fuel contains very long-lived 
radionuclides some protection is required for at least 100000 years. Two 
means of achieving this are  possible: 

1.  	We can wait for the natural decay of the radioactive elements by 
isolating them 	physically from the biosphere by installing successive 
barriers at a suitable depth 	in the ground. This strategy is geological 
disposal and is the current policy of 	many countries including the United 
States.

2. 	We can make use of nuclear reactions that will transmute the very 
long-lived wastes into less radioactive or shorter-lived products. First, 
uranium and plutonium are separated from the other nuclides.  Then they can 
be reprocessed into new nuclear fuel.  This is RECYCLING of much of the 
waste.  But a smaller amount must still be put into a deep geological 
repository. Some alternative possibilities are being explored such as the 
accelerator transmutation of waste. See the web sites listed below for more 
information.

For more information:
----------------------------

Site 1


Site 2


Site 3


See the link for the "Safety and environmental aspects of recycling" at
Site 4


Site 5


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[Moderator note:  New technologies can be developed that can consume various 
components of the nuclear waste for various useful purposes like more efficient 
rocket engines.  Here are some sites that describe such ideas.

Americium Rocket Engine


Neutron Technique for Waste Transformation


Novel Nuclear Reactor that Transmutes Waste Automatically]