Destruction of Plutonium and Other Nuclear Waste Materials Using the Accelerator-Driven Transmutation of Waste Concept

Abstract

Each large nuclear power plant produces about 300 kilograms of actinides and about 120 kilograms of long-lived fission product wastes per year, with major constituents in terms of potentially dangerous radiation. The plutonium is a basic end-product of the reactor cycle using uranium fuel, and is considered especially troublesome in terms of its potential damage to humans either directly or by clandestine conversion to nuclear weapons.