Nuclear power is the largest source of carbon-free electricity in the U.S. It is a critical component of a just energy transition to meet climate goals.
Nuclear plants provide clean, reliable power around the clock using the most powerful energy source on the planet: nuclear fuel. Each thumbnail-sized ceramic uranium fuel pellet produces the same amount of energy as 1,780 pounds of coal, 149 gallons of oil, or 17,000 cubic feet of natural gas.
Global Approaches to Recycling Used Fuel
Reprocessing extracts reusable constituents from used fuel and recycling incorporates these constituents into new fuel for reuse. Several countries in Europe and Asia have successfully reprocessed and recycled used fuel to recover more valuable energy. For example, France routinely reprocesses and recycles a signficant amount of used fuel and opened its facilities to other nations. Meanwhile, Japan, China, India, and other countries are moving forward with plans to recycle in the future.
All used fuel produced in the United States over the past half century remains safely and securely stored while awaiting permanent disposal in a geologic repository. In the United States, two factors have, in the past, resulted in decisions not to reprocess:
- Some policymakers have been concerned about the extent to which reprocessing extracts plutonium from used fuel and the possibility that this could lead to the proliferation of nuclear weapons abroad.
- Owners of the existing U.S. nuclear fleet have viewed the economics of recycling as too uncertain to justify the necessary investments.
However, recent changes in global nuclear fuel markets and burgeoning interest in advanced nuclear reactors could cause these views to shift in favor of recycling.
Recycling Used Fuel for Advanced Reactors
With next generation advanced reactors under development, many developers are looking at a suite of recycling technologies, beyond current approaches, that could potentially allow for greater use of the energy in used fuel. There are a wide range of innovative advanced reactor designs being considered and each would call for different feedstock strategies. There also are developing technologies that would extract valuable radioisotopes (e.g., for medical purposes) from used fuel. In both cases, feedstock could be produced by recycling used fuel of all types discharged from current light water reactors or—in the future—used fuel from advanced reactors. The U.S. Department of Energy has entered into several agreements with developers to fund research and development of these recycling technologies.
Policy Principles
NEI is proposing to adopt the following principles to guide industry’s efforts to advance recycling technologies.
Recycling would not replace the need for disposal in a geologic repository
- Even in an integrated used fuel management program that includes recycling, a geologic repository would remain necessary because some radioactive byproducts will require permanent disposal.
- The federal government must fulfill its disposal responsibility—contributions of nuclear plant owners and their consumers have resulted in the Nuclear Waste Fund’s $45 billion balance to finance a disposal facility.
- Recycling has the potential to benefit repository development by converting spent fuel into waste forms that are easier to dispose.
- Co‐locating recycling facilities with repository and consolidated interim storage facilities has the potential to provide potential host communities with additional economic benefits.
Recycling technologies should further clean energy and sustainability goals
- Recycling has the potential to enhance nuclear generation as a clean, sustainable source of energy by improving resource utilization.
- The existing inventory of used nuclear fuel contains the energy potential to provide the U.S. with many additional decades of carbon‐free electricity.
Recycling technologies should increase the economic competitiveness of future nuclear reactors
- In the future, it may be more cost effective to produce new fuel with used nuclear feedstock than by beginning with natural uranium—lowering electricity bills, spurring economic growth, and improving energy equity.
Recycling should help improve U.S. energy security
- Recycling, in conjunction with increased domestic uranium production, could enable a long‐term strategy to reduce U.S. dependence on imported uranium nuclear fuel.
The U.S. should support research, development, and demonstration of used nuclear fuel recycling technologies
- Federal investment in recycling technologies can accelerate first‐of‐a‐kind research, development, and demonstration (RD&D).
Recycling technologies should avoid unacceptable proliferation risks
- U.S. recycling efforts should be guided by best practices established through global experience to date.
- Recycling technologies must be implemented in accordance with strict international safeguards.
- Recycling may result in waste forms that enhance our ability to protect these materials.
The NRC should license recycling facilities under its current regulations and implement innovative approaches to achieve timely reviews of recycling facilities
- The NRC will need to develop its workforce consistent with the need to license and inspect recycling facilities in the future.
- NRC should learn from its experience licensing the “first‐mover” recycling facilities to strengthen its regulatory framework in the future.