General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Former EPA leader: ‘Irresponsible’ for US to halt nuclear power [View all]FBaggins
(26,740 posts)A number of countries do it (the French get almost all of their electricity from nuclear power and have a small fraction of the waster problem that we have.
Very little of the fuel is expended in the old E = mc(squared) process. The only reason that it's "spent" after 4-6 years is that the fission products built up int he fuel rods to the point where the ongoing reaction is slowed. Clean out those daughter elements by reprocessing the fuel and you can put it right back into a reactor and use it again (over and over and over).
It has the added advantage of reducing the volume of waste dramatically... and most of that waste is comparatively short-lived. As you can imagine, it would be easier to accept underground storage of nuclear waste if there was far less of it and it only needed to be stored for a century or so before it wasn't very radioactive.