The United States doesn’t have a commercial nuclear fuel reprocessing facility and has been at an impasse for decades on a permanent repository to deal with spent nuclear waste. There’s a growing federal appetite to build and operate a domestic nuclear recycling facility, and Utah wants to be top of mind.
As part of that push, lawmakers passed a bill, SB135, as a framework for recycling and to chase U.S. Department of Energy incentives.
But isn’t spent nuclear fuel just waste?
“When it comes out of a reactor, it still has a lot of energy content in it and contains certain elements like uranium and plutonium that could be fissioned further in order to generate more power,” explained Michael Simpson, a materials science and engineering professor at the University of Utah who studies nuclear energy.
In 2022, he received a grant from the Department of Energy to develop a process for recycling spent nuclear fuel.
Simpson added that once the useful elements are extracted through a chemical process, there will still be radioactive waste to deal with. Albeit, he said, it’s safer than what you started with.
“The radioactive isotopes in there have shorter half-lives. They don’t generate as much heat, so they’re not as dangerous, but it still has to be disposed of.”
In light of that, Utah is looking at areas where that waste could be buried.
“The state’s considering some salt domes in the Delta area,” Simpson said. “But the leftover waste would have much less impact than the original spent nuclear fuel. We’re talking about less than 10% of the original waste,” he explained.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Pamela McCall: What’s driving the desire for a nuclear recycling facility in Utah?
Michael Simpson: It’s because of the economic benefits that come from having essentially a new industry. Right now, the situation with technology and new reactors that are being developed, and licensed, and ultimately built is kind of laying the groundwork for a real need for recycled fuel. So Utah could position itself to be a true leader in this new industry.
PM: Where would the spent nuclear fuel come from?
MS: There's no spent nuclear fuel, to my knowledge, being stored right now in Utah. So you'd go to other states. There are currently somewhere around 90-100 nuclear reactors across the U.S. that produce spent fuel. The spent fuel would have to be put into casks, containers that shield the radiation, protect it in case there was an accident or something, put it on a truck. But what happens if the truck were to crash? You want to have to put in some packaging where you'd have reasonable assurance that nothing would escape, no one would become contaminated, you know, there'd be any harm, or possibly you put it on rail.
PM: What kind of opposition would you anticipate in Utah?
MS: I'm sure there will be groups and individuals that are going to speak up in opposition. That's to be expected and should be welcomed. There should be really good, transparent conversations. I think that the case can be made on technical grounds that this can be done safely and that the waste that is going to be produced can be safely and responsibly handled, but it's going to be a challenge — it’s not gonna be easy.
Editor’s note: KUER is a licensee of the University of Utah but operates as an editorially independent news organization.
