An Australian invention that immobilises radioactive waste is to be used to clean up five tonnes of nuclear waste at Sellafield in the United Kingdom.
Synroc is a synthetic rock that entraps plutonium and can be used to prevent it from being used to manufacture weapons.
The Sellafield clean-up will be made possible by 25 years of research at the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO).
ANSTO executive director Ian Smith says Synroc can prevent environmental contamination and means nuclear technology can be used without its offcuts falling into the hands of those who want to make weapons.
"It puts that material out of touch and it securely locks this material away for millions of years," Dr Smith said.
"In this case [in Sellafield], it represents a way of restraining plutonium so that it can't escape into the environment and can't be separated for any weapons use," he said.
"Over the past two years, ANSTO has worked to develop a tailor-made glass-ceramic matrix to imprison the Sellafield waste ready for long-term storage and eventual permanent disposal," Dr Smith added in a statement.
"The matrix is specifically designed for their particular needs, as ANSTO's technology can be adapted for a variety of radioactive waste requirements."
Synroc has been around since the 1970s but Dr Smith says the Sellafield project is the first demonstration of how it can be adapted to meet the specific needs of different nuclear sites.
ANSTO hopes to use the Sellafield clean-up as a pilot program for other initiatives.