Editing Nuclear reprocessing (section)

====Disadvantages of halogen volatility====
* Many compounds of fluorine or chlorine as well as the native elements themselves are toxic, corrosive and react violently with air, water or both
* [[Uranium hexafluoride]] and [[Technetium hexafluoride]] have very similar boiling points ({{convert|329.6|K}} and {{convert|328.4|K}} respectively), making it hard to completely separate them from one another by distillation.
* Fractional distillation as used in [[petroleum refining]] requires large facilities and huge amounts of energy. To process thousands of tons of uranium would require smaller facilities than processing billions of tons of petroleum {{mdash}} however, unlike petroleum refineries, the entire process would have to take place inside radiation shielding and there would have to be provisions made to prevent leaks of volatile, poisonous and radioactive fluorides.
* [[Plutonium hexafluoride]] boils at {{convert|335|K}} this means that any facility capable of separating uranium hexafluoride from Technetium hexafluoride is capable of separating plutonium hexafluoride from either, raising proliferation concerns
* The presence of [[alpha decay|alpha emitters]] induces some (α,n) reactions in fluorine, producing both radioactive {{chem|22|Na|link=sodium-22}} and neutrons.<ref>{{cite journal|url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0969806X23001640|title=Neutron and gamma-ray signatures for the control of alpha-emitting materials in uranium production: A Nedis2m-MCNP6 simulation|date=2023 |doi=10.1016/j.radphyschem.2023.110919 |access-date=2023-08-09 |last1=Vlaskin |first1=Gennady N. |last2=Bedenko |first2=Sergey V. |last3=Polozkov |first3=Sergey D. |last4=Ghal-Eh |first4=Nima |last5=Rahmani |first5=Faezeh |journal=Radiation Physics and Chemistry |volume=208 |page=110919 |bibcode=2023RaPC..20810919V |s2cid=257588532 }}</ref> This effect can be reduced by separating alpha emitters and fluorine as fast as feasible. Interactions between chlorine's two stable isotopes {{chem|35|Cl|link=chlorine-35}} and {{chem|37|Cl|link=chlorine-37}} on the one hand and alpha particles on the other are of lesser concern as they do not have as high a cross section and do not produce neutrons or long lived radionuclides.<ref>[https://www.oecd-nea.org/janisweb/book/alphas/Cl35/MT4/renderer/1082 Dead link] {{Dead link|date=September 2022}}</ref>
* If carbon is present in the spent fuel it'll form [[halogenated hydrocarbons]] which are extremely potent [[greenhouse gas]]es, and hard to chemically decompose. Some of those are toxic as well.