Reprocessing

The term "Reprocessing Unit" is misleading as no waste will be recycled there. Basically Plutonium will be produced in such a facility. For this the spent fuel (originally the fuel consists of Uranium-235 and Uranium-238) will be transformed into three main fractions:
 * 1) remaining Uranium (ca. 95 %),
 * 2) Plutonium (ca. 1 %; created not until before operation in the reactor), and
 * 3) fission products (ca. 4 %; Caesium-137, Strontium-90, Technetium-99, Iodine-129 etc. - all created not until before operation in the reactor).

Usually the Plutonium will be used for the construction of nuclear bombs or as an addition for the production of so called MOX (mixed oxides) fuel elements.

Materials

 * Recycling Nuclear Fuel = Plutonium Reprocessing - video of a lecture with the Canadian scientist Gordon Edwards in Finland in January 2010