United States to Bury Almost All Existing Used Nuclear Fuel

The United States’ current inventory of domestic used nuclear fuel “is massive, diverse, dispersed, and increasing,” according to the Oak Ridge report. Stored at 79 temporary sites in 34 states, it represents “a total of about 23 billion curies of long-lived radioactivity.” 

U.S. To Bury Almost All Existing Used Nuclear Fuel; Recycling Deferred At Least 20 Years
by Jeff McMahon, Contributor, Forbes, 28 January 2013

There’s little hope that the 70,000 metric tons of used nuclear fuel dispersed across the United States will ever be recycled, according to a recent study by Oak Ridge National Laboratory—so nearly all existing waste will go into the earth.

In a study completed late last year, Oak Ridge officials determined that the U.S. is at least 20 years away from large-scale reprocessing of used nuclear fuel, if it decides to pursue such technologies. By then, they estimate, nuclear plants will have generated another 40,000 metric tons of spent fuel.
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