The Nuclear Regulatory Commission officially ended work on a proposed rulemaking for reprocessing spent nuclear fuel this week after staff recommended discontinuing the process, according to an agency memo.
According to the memo dated Thursday, NRC voted to approve the staff recommendation to discontinue the rulemaking, which was proposed in 2013. In the March 5 recommendation, commission staff cited lack of industry interest and public concern about the safety of spent fuel reprocessing as reasons why the rulemaking probe should be shuttered.
NRC staff have been directed to continue working with the Department of Energy, industry and international contacts to monitor future interest in reprocessing, the memo said.
There had been renewed debate about the viability of spent fuel reprocessing in recent years. During the Donald Trump administration, DOE’s Office of Nuclear Energy promoted the potential benefits of the practice, to little avail in Washington. On the other side of things, anti-nuclear groups have raised concerns about the safety of plutonium produced as part of reprocessing, which can’t be used by the nation’s existing fleet of reactors.
Meanwhile, there remains no federally-licensed permanent geologic repository for nuclear waste, and the Joe Biden administration has vowed not to build one at Yucca Mounta in in Nevada, which is the only congressionally authorized site for such a repository.
Last year, DOE’s Office of Nuclear Energy started a new reprocessing research effort, although an official involved with the program said at the time that it had “no clear outcome.”
