--Awash in Plutonium, La Hague, France

Dear Awash,

The term "accelerator transmutation of waste" actually comes from the ancient alchemists. Most people know of their quest to turn lead into gold. A small group of them were also concerned that their growing cities were producing too much garbage. While exploring ways of getting rid of it, they hit upon the idea of "accelerator transmutation of waste." This involved using catapults to throw the garbage long distances so that when it hit the ground it would break up, or "transmute," into pieces so small nobody would notice or care. In the end, they built one pilot garbage catapult, or "waste accelerator," but quickly discovered that it merely spread the mess around a big area without getting rid of it. And that was the end of that kind of accelerator transmutation of waste.

Accelerator Transmutation of Waste now refers to a proposed set of nuclear technologies for the treatment of the highly radioactive spent fuel from current nuclear reactors. The short answer to your question is that ATW requires a lot more than just accelerators. Each accelerator would supply neutrons to a nuclear reactor (or sometimes multiple nuclear reactors). Associated with these accelerator/reactor stations would be facilities for nuclear fuel reprocessing, fuel fabrication, and waste management. In addition, in the end, a repository would still be necessary to handle the residual waste from ATW as well as all the radionuclides that ATW cannot transmute. See the diagram below for a map of a generic ATW system.