Spent fuel reprocessing sounds great, but experts say we haven’t figured out the details.

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MIT Technology Review

Spent nuclear fuel still contains usable uranium and plutonium, making reprocessing an appealing idea. France operates the world's largest reprocessing program at La Hague using the PUREX process, producing MOX fuel and re-enrichable uranium. However, reprocessing faces significant limitations: spent MOX fuel generates more heat than conventional spent fuel, potentially requiring as much repository space; the uranium produced is contaminated with hard-to-separate isotopes; the process can only be done roughly twice, not infinitely; plutonium separation raises weapons proliferation concerns; and reprocessing is economically unviable given current uranium supply. France continues reprocessing primarily for energy independence reasons, paying a national security premium. Japan is building a reprocessing facility delayed since 1993. Experts agree a geological repository will still be necessary regardless of how good recycling becomes.

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