Is it feasible to convert high-level radioactive waste to stable nuclei to produce rare-earth elements?
Some of the nuclei produced by the nuclear fission of 235U in nuclear reactors have very long half-lives—the period over which half of a sample undergoes radioactive decay. As a result, the inclusion of such nuclei in high-level radioactive waste poses a major problem for disposal. “If these unstable, long-life radioactive nuclei are bombarded by protons or neutrons, or even light (photons) of a specific energy, they may split into smaller nuclei that have a shorter half-life, or into stable nuclei that do not emit radiation.”Even now, some reactions are known to be able to convert long-life radioactive nuclei into short half-life species. “However, the probability of the occurrence of the reactions is so small that disposing of all high-level radioactive waste in this way is too costly and time-consuming to be practical. Furthermore, experimental attempts to find a reaction with a higher probability of occurrence are also costly and time-intensive. I think nuclear theory will help to
