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  FROM HERE TO ETERNITY:

The Problem
The crisis in a nutshell. Read

The Plan
Will a British company's proposal to turn waste into glass fix the problem or make it worse? Read

The Graveyard
Yucca Mountain, Nev., is the final resting place for America's nuclear waste ... or is it? Read

The Alternative
The French take a different approach: recycling their waste. Read

Background
   Vitrification: Turning spent nuclear fuel into glass. Read

   A nuclear waste primer. Read

   A timeline. Read

Back to the beginning
Vitrification: How nuclear waste is turned into glass

In the glassmaking process that BNFL proposes to adapt to Hanford’s tank waste, Sellafield workers turn radioactive liquid into equally radioactive, but more stable, black glass. At the end, the waste is encased in a 4-foot-high stainless steel canister that resembles an old-fashioned milk can (photo with cutaway at right). At Sellafield, the boxy, windowless Vitrification Plant contains enough bewildering pipework to stretch from England to France. Humans cannot enter the "hot cell" where the transformation takes place, so workers must monitor the assembly line shielded by thick concrete and lead walls and watch through windows made of three-foot thick, solid lead glass.

Illustration of container See a step-by-step illustration of how the process works at Sellafield:

  1. Steps 1-4 (31K graphic)
    High-level waste is burned and the residue mixed with glass.

  2. Steps 5-7 (24K graphic)
    The resulting compound is decontaminated.

  3. Step 8 (41K graphic)
    Glass logs are put into storage.
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