Nuclear Waste for Fuel

The world today is moving to the “closed fuel cycle” by recycling spent nuclear fuel.  France, Japan, the United Kingdom, Russia, India, and China have programs to recycle.  The advantages of recycling include a substantial reduction in the volume and radiotoxicity of high-level nuclear waste as well as recovering the energy content remaining in the used fuel.  While these advantages have been widely recognized and advanced by other nations, the U.S. leadership in this area has been lost, and the underlying technological and intellectual infrastructure needed to compete internationally has decayed to near irrelevance. Recycling does not eliminate the need for a disposal site because there will always be significant quantities of materials requiring long-term geologic isolation.  However, advanced reprocessing technologies can reduce high-level waste volumes significantly.  These distinct advantages are currently driving international research efforts and likely will influence national decisions on the establishment of domestic and regional nuclear waste repositories. Reestablishing a domestic capability to recycle nuclear fuel will require a public-private partnership with some level of industry incentives provided by the U.S. government, and establishment of research programs at multiple laboratories and universities