How is plutonium produced and used and how is nuclear waste disposed of ?
Spent fuel discharged from reactors is not considered а waste as it contains unused U-238 as well as plutonium. The spent fuel is therefore sent to reprocessing plants for recovery of plutonium and uranium. At these plants the spent fuel is dissolved in acid and all the radioactive materials go into solution. Plutonium and uranium are separated from this solution which retains the radioactive fission products. The separated plutonium and uranium are then processed appropriately for re-use in reactors. The solution containing radioactive fission products is treated as high level liquid waste and is stored in stainless steel tanks in underground vaults. The vaults are lined. inside with stainless steel plate and are isolated from ground water outside. After storage here for an interim period, the liquid is processed and finally converted to solid glass, encased in metal cans and stored in an underground repository. These techniques have been already developed indigenously and tested. The
