THE CURRENT STATE OF SPENT NUCLEAR FUEL DEEP DISPOSAL TECHNOLOGY.

Slávka Prváková - Vladimír Nečas

   Today the most serious problemme in the area of nuclear power engineering is the management of spent nuclear fuel. Due to its very high radioactivity the nuclear waste must be isolated from the environment. The perspective solution of nuclear fuel cycle is the final disposal into geological formations. Today there is no disposal facility all over the world. There are only underground research laboratories in the well developed countries like the USA, France, Japan, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland and Belgium.
   From the economical point of view the most suitable appears to build a few international repositories. According to the political and social aspect each of the country prepaire his own project of the deep repository. The status of those programmes in different countries is described.
   The development of methods for the long-term management of radioactive waste is necessity in all countries that have had nuclear programmes.

Keywords: radioactive waste, spent nuclear fuel, repository, disposal, geological formation, reprocessing

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