NUCLEAR METHODS FOR TRANSMUTATION OF ...

Long-lived radioactive materials from the operation of nuclear power plants and from the maintenance and decommissioning of nuclear weapons pose environmental and security risks. Technologies that would counter such risks are under intense study worldwide. One such technology, transmutation by nuclear means into shorter-lived materials, was the subject of an international workshop in Russia, where the need for a viable solution of this problem is particularly strong.Current problems of that technology and future perspectives and cooperative research possibilities involving Russian and East European facilities are discussed by scientists from Russia, the United States and seven other countries representing basic research institutes, former nuclear weapons laboratories and nuclear industries. Computer modeling, data bases and experimental investigations needed for the conceptualization of demonstration, prototype and production facilities are treated in detail. Progress on the planning and construction of the first demonstration facilities is also described.From these proceedings it becomes evident that the problems inherent in radioactive waste accumulation can be solved only by international cooperation in which conventional methods are supplemented by new technologies, and that such a solution may require a sustained effort comparable to the Manhattan Project and the analogous project in the former USSR at the beginning of the nuclear era.