What do we do with nuclear waste and materials today?

[madokie]

http://www.cite-sciences.fr/francais/ala_cite/science_actualites/sitesactu/question_actu.php?id_article=4743&id_mag=0&langue=an

From uranium mining to spent MOX fuel, all the stages in the production process of nuclear electricity in France produce radioactive substances (see annual figures in the diagram), which some think will never be reused, while others – depending on the operator – think they should be reintroduced into the nuclear process by 2040.

Uranium mining produces waste : in France, where the extraction of uranium ore ended in 2001, 50 million tonnes of mining waste is stored in situ under existing regulations.

The enrichment of natural uranium to produce uranium 235 also produces depleted uranium, most of which is not currently used (220,000 tonnes of stocks). Only a small quantity – 92 tonnes of the 7,000 produced each year – is used to manufacture MOX (mixed oxide) fuel. Depleted uranium could be used as fuel in fast neutron reactors if these are commissioned in years to come.

(snip)

The reprocessing of spent fuel separates waste – fission products and minor actinides – from plutonium, recycled in MOX fuel, and reprocessed uranium, only rather infrequently used today (16,000 tonnes of stocks) because of the low cost of natural uranium. Two EDF reactors are fuelled by reprocessed uranium (URE) after it has been re-enriched in Russia (technology adapted to reprocessed uranium, not available in France).