What do the French do with their nuclear waste?
The French first process their nuclear waste to separate the remaining unused fuel and plutonium generated so they can recycle it back into new fuel cells. This process also separates the majority of long-lived radioisotopes which has the effect of tremendously reducing the volume of long lived nuclear waste. This waste is then “stocked” vice “stored” or “buried”. The difference is “stocked” means the nuclear waste is stored, inventoried, and maintained whereas “buried” implies the material is disposed of and forgotten. “Stocking” the material maintains accountability into the future, where the material may be retrieved and possibly reprocessed as technological advancements provide more solutions to the problems of reducing or eliminating long-lived nuclear waste. See the following link: http://www.pbs.org/…/french.
