Radioactive waste - Management through separation - transmutation

In the article "Radioactive waste management by geological disposal", we looked at how most countries that have to manage long-lived radioactive waste are preparing to deposit it in geological repositories, in order to isolate it from the biosphere and confine the radionuclides that will escape over the very long term (hundreds of thousands of years), so that their radiological impact merges with that of natural radioactivity. This type of management poses a variety of problems in terms of natural hazards or future human activity, and is not universally accepted. One way of guarding against hazards and increasing confidence in a repository's ability to fulfill its assigned role would be to reduce the harmfulness of HLW as much as possible. The strategy of separation-transmutation would make it possible to move in this direction, but for reasons explained in this article, it would mean continuing to use nuclear energy for a century, if not more, from the moment it is implemented. On the other hand, it would require a mutation of nuclear power, leading to the operation of fast-neutron reactors associated with plants for recycling the materials circulating in these reactors. This transformation would take several decades, both to overcome technological difficulties and to deal with economic issues.