US campaign puts case for disposal, not reprocessing, of used fuel

Thursday, 12 February 2026

The Nuclear Scaling Initiative’s Scale What Works campaign says that direct disposal of used nuclear fuel in the US is the "safest, most secure and least expensive pathway for the country" as nuclear energy capacity is expanded.

US campaign puts case for disposal, not reprocessing, of used fuel — A rendering of the Onkalo underground used fuel repository in Finland, which is cited as an example of the benefits of 'clear, straightforward direct disposal policies' (Image: Posiva)

The initiative - which is a collaboration of the Clean Air Task Force, the EFI Foundation and the Nuclear Threat Initiative - aims to "build a new nuclear energy ecosystem that can quickly and economically scale to 50+ gigawatts of safe and secure nuclear energy globally per year by the 2030s".

The Nuclear Scaling Initiative (NSI) Executive Director Steve Comello said: "Making smart fuel management choices today, that acknowledge that reprocessing technologies today are not economically viable and pose security and waste management risks, can drive grid reliability, innovation, and economic and national security for the United States and beyond."

NSI, whose global advisory board is chaired by former US Secretary of State John Kerry, says that all forms of energy production produces waste, and says that in nuclear's case, directly storing and "eventually disposing of intact spent fuel" underground "is a safe, straightforward process that uses existing expertise and infrastructure".

Countries should learn from the reprocessing experience in the UK, Japan and France, NSI says, adding that its view is that reprocessing used fuel is "costly, complex and time-intensive, increasing energy prices for consumers and diverting resources from readily deployable technologies".

Former Deputy Secretary of Defense and Under Secretary of Energy John Deutch said: "Reprocessing is not a reasonable option: it threatens security, is not cost-effective and will slow our ability to scale nuclear energy."

Reprocessing of used fuel from commercial reactors has been prohibited in the USA since 1977, with all used fuel being treated as high-level waste. However, the nation has more than 250 plant-years of reprocessing operational experience, mostly from reprocessing oxide fuels at government-operated defence plants as part of its military programme. A civil reprocessing plant at West Valley, New York, operated successfully from 1966-1972: a second one at Morris, Illinois, failed to work successfully and was declared inoperable in 1974. A third civil reprocessing plant was built at Barnwell, South Carolina but was not commissioned due to the changed government policy.

Earlier this month the US Department of Energy's Office of Nuclear Energy awarded more than USD19 million to five US companies to research and develop recycling technologies for used nuclear fuel.

The Department of Energy noted that less than 5% of the potential energy in the USA's nuclear fuel is extracted after five years of operation in a commercial reactor. It says recycling used nuclear fuel could increase resource utilisation by 95%, reduce waste by 90%, and decrease the amount of uranium needed to operate nuclear reactors. Additional benefits to nuclear fuel recycling include the recovery and extraction of valuable radioisotopes for medical, industrial, and defence purposes.

In September last year Oklo Inc announced plans to design, build and operate a facility at Oak Ridge in Tennessee to recycle used nuclear fuel into fuel for fast reactors like the company’s own Aurora powerhouse. The Executive Orders signed by President Donald Trump last year included directions to the Department of Energy to bring forward national policies on the management of used fuel and high-level waste and evaluate private-sector reprocessing options, amongst other things.