It has been considerecl possible to store the spent nuclear fuel discharged from a light water reactor (LWR) for 1000 years taking the decay of radioactive atoms into account. However, the highly radioactive fuel should be stored for a much longer time, because considerable amounts of very toxic and long-lived alpha emitters will still be present after 1000 years. The radioactive species are classified into three categories : fission products, transuranium elements and neutron induced species. Using the published results on disintrgration rates of the radioactive products, problems associated with the following three options of radioactive waste "disposal" will be discussed. They are (1) Reprocessing of the fuel followed by the burning of Pu in fast reactors, (2) Reprocessing and burning of long-lived redionuclides including transuranium elements by high-intersity neutron induced resections and (3) Storage of the fuel without further processing. The third option (the storage without processing) is, in my opinion, most practical procedure to be adopted in this country.
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