WASHINGTON, D.C. – The head of the U.S. Energy Department’s Office of Nuclear Energy on Monday said she was committed to studying the potential use of advanced reactors in recycling radioactive spent fuel.
Assistant Energy Secretary for Nuclear Energy Rita Baranwal, though, said that storage and permanent disposal of the nation’s nuclear waste also remain viable options for consideration.
“First I’m trying to understand all of the options that are we have available to us,” Baranwal said during a keynote address to the American Nuclear Society’s Winter Meeting here. “I want to be clear about what we’re doing in the office: Yucca Mountain is still certainly on the table, it’s just based on what Congress directs us to do, so that is still certainly an option.”
Since taking over at the Office of Nuclear Energy in June, Baranwal has regularly lamented the fact that the United States has not found a financially viable way to reuse its used nuclear fuel.
The Energy Department is legally responsible for managing that stockpile of waste, which stands at about 80,000 metric tons and grows by roughly 2,000 metric tons each year. Used fuel maintains up to 95% of its original energy.
Baranwal said she was inspired by a visit last month to the La Hague reprocessing plant in France. The nation recycles 96% of its spent fuel, with the remaining “most hazardous isotopes” converted into a glass form for disposal, she noted.
“So I will be exploring options for dealing with our used commercial nuclear fuel and looking for ways to enable recycling in our advanced reactors in the future,” she said.
Baranwal did not discuss details of this effort, but said reprocessing would receive “some additional focus given to recycling because it has not been done in the recent past.”
