The 11 papers describe several processes for separating nuclear waste into a small volume of highly radioactive material to be buried very deep and a large volume of less radioactive material to be buried in cheaper, shallower facilities. Some inventory the amount and type of nuclear waste currently

Chemical pretreatment of nuclear wastes refers to the sequence of separations processes used to partition such wastes into a small volume of high-level waste for deep geologic disposal and a larger volume of low-level waste for disposal in a near-surface facility. Pretreatment of nuclear wastes now stored at several U. S. Department of Energy sites ranges from simple solid-liquid separations to more complex chemical steps, such as dissolution of sludges and removal of selected radionuclides, e. g., 90Sr, 99Tc, 137CS, and TRU (transuranium) elements. The driving force for development of...