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.
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