Radioactive substances that radiate the longer must be stored safely for 100,000 years . Technicians seeking techniques so they can recycle some of the nuclear waste and neutralize the rest. In 1,000 years , the intensity of irradiated fuel elements from waste could decrease so it is comparable to that of natural uranium. It should also reduce the volume of waste .

Recycling takes place in several stages. First, a chemical treatment of irradiated substances can separate the fission products: uranium and plutonium, but also other chemicals, the minor actinides. These must be processed and used in part as part of the new fuel in reactors. The minor actinides – including cash neptunium , americium and curium – play a key role and, together with plutonium , materials that radiate the longest . To ensure the transmutation [ 1] of these elements, plutonium and minor actinides are bombarded by neutrons.

At the Institute for Transuranium Elements in Karlsruhe ( ITU ), researchers are examining in particular the changes in properties of the fuel when the minor actinides are associated in the fuel . Transmutation has two advantages : firstly , the danger emanating from the waste down, because the fissionable material are stable or have half a shorter period , they disintegrate faster. Furthermore, some minor actinides is reused in the fuel rods of new reactor at the same time as uranium and plutonium . The manufacture of fuel is then a challenge in itself .

Tests transmutation occurred in the Research Centre Dresden – Rossendorf , where a source of neutrons can cause transmutation . Researchers at Dresden use an accelerator to bombard the electrons on the molten lead , to test transmutation with neutrons released. Scientists analyze eg the intensity of the scattering of neutrons on the materials that make up the sleeves of the fuel elements. The project is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research ( BMBF ). Several universities and the Federal Physico- Technical Brunswick ( Lower Saxony ) are involved.

The reactor where the recycling technology to be used also need a long period of development . In about 2020, the first French prototype of a sodium -cooled reactor will be ready. It will take experts estimate at least until 2030, before commercial reactors of this type can provide energy to Europe.

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[1 ] Transmute : transformation of a chemical element into another by changing the atomic nucleus of the element .

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