3. Nuclear power plants

3.1 General

Today's nuclear technologies make varying degrees of use of natural resources in fissile materials ( ²³⁵ U) and fertile materials ( ²³⁸ U and ²³² Th) capable of producing fissile materials ( ²³⁹ Pu, ²³³ U) by neutron absorption. They also produce more or less minor actinides (isotopes of Np, Am and Cm), radionuclides that are more or less long-lived, radiotoxic and, in the case of those with shorter half-lives, non-negligible sources of heat in the waste. Waste streams can be classified according to their characteristics in these two areas, distinguishing...