What provisions are there for storing high-level waste?
In the case of the closed cycle (reprocessing), the high-activity radwaste package is a stainless stell and titanium capsule. The insoluble vitrified product obtained in the reprocessing plant after recovering uranium and plutonium, as explained above, is put inside this capsule. The geological isolation time for a package that does not contain plutomium is only 800 years. In the open cycle, the package is a copper container in which the spent fuel assembly rods have been placed, filling in the gaps between rods with molten lead. The geological isolation time required for this package is 4,000 years. In both cases, the high radioactivity waste package will be placed in a repository built in a geological formation between 300 and 1000 meters deep. When feasible, saline formations (the presence of salt ensures the absence of water) are chosen as receiving rock, and if this is not possible granite or clay is chosen. The encasing rock is always clay. Building high-activity waste repositori
