Partitioning and Transmutation Studies at ITU

In this sixth decade of nuclear power, the issue of waste disposal strongly dominates public opinion. In the eyes of the public, the problem of waste disposal is not fully solved, especially in terms of environmental and social acceptability. The public attitude to developing sites for waste disposal has been succinctly summarised in suitable acronyms NIMBY (not in my back yard), NIMTO (not in my term of office) and BANANA (build absolutely nothing anywhere near anyone) [1]. However, it must also be added that scientific issues related to the disposal problem do indeed need further clarification. Evidence given to the House of Lords Committee [2,3] by the science and engineering community clearly state that “there is a need for developing the sciences relevant to a detailed assessment, at a fundamental level“. The source of public attitude seems to be the very long times involving many generations during which this waste must be separated from the biosphere to avoid possible harmful effects. To address this problem, scientists are looking for ways to significantly reduce both the volumes and the radiotoxicity of the waste, and to shorten the very long times for which this waste must be stored safely.For this reason various so-called Partitioning and Transmutation (P&T) techniques are being investigated in most countries with significant nuclear power generating capacity.