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Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
September 8–11, 2025
Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
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No impact from Savannah River radioactive wasps
The news is abuzz with recent news stories about four radioactive wasp nests found at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina. The site has been undergoing cleanup operations since the 1990s related to the production of plutonium and tritium for defense purposes during the Cold War. Cleanup activities are expected to continue into the 2060s.
Tadashi Inoue, Masahiro Sakata, Hajime Miyashiro, Tetsuo Matsumura, Akihiro Sasahara, Nobuya Yoshiki
Nuclear Technology | Volume 93 | Number 2 | February 1991 | Pages 206-220
Technical Paper | Nuclear Fuel Cycle | doi.org/10.13182/NT91-A34506
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
High-level radioactive wastes from the Purex process contain long-lived nuclides, which mainly consist of transuranic elements (TRUs). A partitioning and transmutation method that consists of pyrometallurgical partitioning of TRUs from Purex waste from light water reactor fuel and transmutation using a metal-fueled fast breeder reactor (FBR) is evaluated. The results indicate that the concept is feasible and has many advantages over conventional concepts based on wet processes and that transmutation of TRUs in a metal-fueled FBR is advantageous over that in a oxide-fueled FBR.