As Moosey is aware - I am of the view that recycling of nuclear waste is IMHO highly unlikely for about a decade but I have to concede that from a practical viewpoint it makes a lot of sense (Russia and France do it now). Moosey has various theories that GEH have continued with this technology in a clandestine manner (i.e secret facilities at Morris & Wilmington); I don't accept Moosey's viewpoint but I have to accept that Idaho National Lab (INL) have a "experimental" (i.e non commercial) facility and now it appears that Oklo are producing a reactor that operates on nuclear waste. A couple of articles have appeared that indicate that their may be a renaissance in thinking about re-processing in the USA but IMO it's stil at least a decade away. The articles are:
https://au.news.yahoo.com/jimmy-carter-killed-technology-50-004249906.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAFaPiRb20OjHP__Q0ti3yZv9PNcrylnwZNvSEf-idGY9Iba9-SPV0jxB3S1cppZgoJk2fWxW7xjXdl0VPllGTCtDFzFlDWW6L5viKlXO-sfenJDEDrJc6IiGwFISA47a6yblOAxwgmiLr-Z1GELMJjaG-jjLU_nvPZPt6GTFcBwChttps://www.huffpost.com/entry/nuclear-waste-solution_n_63dd62f3e4b01e928871180aIMHO none of this (i.e re-processing) will make much difference to GLE in the short to medium term but could do in the next decade. The fact is that in the first article it concludes that "
The Energy Department previously told HuffPost it could not guarantee that HALEU made from nuclear waste would meet the purity standards required for new reactors" - this is due to even isotopes of Uranium and/or Plutonium being in the processed waste that act as nuclear poisons (e.g U236 and/or Pu 240, 242 & 244). The only way of removing these nuclear poisons is with Laser enrichment technology; for used HEU (from military reactors on aircraft carriers and submarines) the potential could be significant.; simply diluting this waste with depleted uranium (as they are currently doing) still produces low quality fuel.
Another interesting point is that if (or when) re-processing is introduced the USA has (for both conventional reactors and SMR fueling) massive amounts of used nuclear fuel as feedstock (~800,000 tonnes) which could in the next decade address the uranium supply shortfall currently forecast. To me the lesson is that the imbalance of uranium supply demand is likely to be an issue for about 10 years but anything can happen after that period. DYOR
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