https://www.science.org/content/article/lasers-defuse-nuclear-waste "It sounds like magic: long-lived radioactive waste made harmless by a laser beam. Now, for the first time scientists have managed to pull it off, transmuting iodine-129, one of the bad boys of nuclear waste, into the much more benign isotope iodine-128. Found extensively in radioactive waste, iodine-129 is born inside nuclear reactor fuel rods during the fission of uranium atoms. With a half-life of 15.7 million years, iodine-129 likes to hang around, emitting beta particles as it decays. Radioactive iodine has been associated with thyroid problems, including cancer of the thyroid, the region of the body where ingested iodine-129 tends to concentrate."
