Why Nuclear Fuel Recycling Is Banned In America

Nuclear waste can actually be recycled and reused as fuel. The practice is common in several countries, including France, Japan, Germany, Belgium, and Russia. The World Nuclear Association claims that up to 97% of nuclear waste (94% of which is uranium) can be recycled. Several types of reactors can use recycled fuel, and conventional reactors are capable of using fuel extracted from spent uranium and plutonium. For that reason, recycling efforts tend to focus on these elements. According to Energy.gov, there are also reactors in development that could run on fuel previously used by other nuclear reactors. The current recycling process involves separating usable plutonium and uranium from spent nuclear fuel and then mixing it with newly refined radioactive elements before forming fuel rods with the mixture.

Recycling is possible because a five-year period inside a reactor only uses around 10% of the potential energy of nuclear fuel sources like plutonium and uranium. If the World Nuclear Association’s numbers are correct, up to 1,940 of the 2,000 metric tons of spent nuclear fuel the United States accumulates each year could be used again instead of being stored on-site in old power plants, winding up in a deep hole in the desert.