Finding New Energy in Used Fuel

Imagine ordering a meal from a world-class chef of all your favorite foods. Each dish is cooked to perfection and the best you’ve ever tasted. After you’ve finished about 10% of the meal, the waiter comes, clears away the dishes, removes the fork from your hand, dumps the meal in the trash, and says while walking away that you can’t have anymore. Sounds crazy, doesn’t it? But this is very similar to what we do when we put used nuclear fuel into storage. There is still a significant amount of energy to be gained from that used fuel.

Nuclear power generates approximately one-fifth of U.S. electricity and half of the carbon-free electricity in the country. In the process of generating electricity, it also produces used nuclear fuel, which is no longer capable of sustaining the reactions necessary for power production. This fuel is safely stored in either concrete-lined pools of water or in dry storage casks made of concrete and steel. That used nuclear fuel still contains more than 90% of its original energy. EPRI and a team of partners were recently awarded $2.8 million from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to conduct research into how that potential energy could be reclaimed.

Nuclear fuel is not currently recycled in the U.S., but the process is in use in other countries. Looking ahead, there are expanded possibilities to take advantage of this potential energy. EPRI and its partners are researching a tool for optimizing the processes for recovering uranium from used nuclear fuel. Once those recovery processes are identified, a study of their market readiness would be performed. The idea would be to take advantage of potential energy remaining in the used fuel to create a fuel supply for the next generation of reactors. The team includes Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Southern Company Research & Development, and Deep Isolation.

Each member of the team brings unique, specific technical perspective to the project. EPRI is providing project management and expertise in advanced reactor development; ORNL is providing technical expertise in nuclear fuel cycles and system modeling for developing the tool; Southern Company is providing real-world data and their experience in shepherding new technology from the laboratory to full-scale commercial deployment; and Deep Isolation is providing technical expertise in the disposal of used fuel in borehole repositories approximately a mile underground.

So, how much fuel are we talking about? DOE reports that there is about 90,000 metric tons of used nuclear fuel generated by U.S. commercial nuclear reactors since the 1950s. That sounds like a lot, but if you were to consolidate it, it would fit on a football field with a height of less than 10 yards. Used fuel is currently stored on location where it was generated. There is much debate about what to do with it. Move it to a central storage location? Leave it where it is? This research could allow a third option: harnessing the potential energy remaining in the fuel. Recycling resolves the problem of what to do with used fuel, while allowing for its use in powering carbon-free advanced nuclear reactors.

There’s still a lot of work to be done in this area. But the research that EPRI and its partners are conducting can help bring U.S. nuclear fuel recycling closer to reality.

Imagine ordering a meal from a world-class chef of all your favorite foods. Each dish is cooked to perfection and the best you’ve ever tasted. After you’ve finished about 10% of the meal, the waiter comes, clears away the dishes, removes the fork from your hand, dumps the meal in the trash, and says while walking away that you can’t have anymore. Sounds crazy, doesn’t it? But this is very similar to what we do when we put used nuclear fuel into storage. There is still a significant amount of energy to be gained from that used fuel.

Nuclear power generates approximately one-fifth of U.S. electricity and half of the carbon-free electricity in the country. In the process of generating electricity, it also produces used nuclear fuel, which is no longer capable of sustaining the reactions necessary for power production. This fuel is safely stored in either concrete-lined pools of water or in dry storage casks made of concrete and steel. That used nuclear fuel still contains more than 90% of its original energy. EPRI and a team of partners were recently awarded $2.8 million from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to conduct research into how that potential energy could be reclaimed.

Nuclear fuel is not currently recycled in the U.S., but the process is in use in other countries. Looking ahead, there are expanded possibilities to take advantage of this potential energy. EPRI and its partners are researching a tool for optimizing the processes for recovering uranium from used nuclear fuel. Once those recovery processes are identified, a study of their market readiness would be performed. The idea would be to take advantage of potential energy remaining in the used fuel to create a fuel supply for the next generation of reactors. The team includes Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Southern Company Research & Development, and Deep Isolation.

Each member of the team brings unique, specific technical perspective to the project. EPRI is providing project management and expertise in advanced reactor development; ORNL is providing technical expertise in nuclear fuel cycles and system modeling for developing the tool; Southern Company is providing real-world data and their experience in shepherding new technology from the laboratory to full-scale commercial deployment; and Deep Isolation is providing technical expertise in the disposal of used fuel in borehole repositories approximately a mile underground.

So, how much fuel are we talking about? DOE reports that there is about 90,000 metric tons of used nuclear fuel generated by U.S. commercial nuclear reactors since the 1950s. That sounds like a lot, but if you were to consolidate it, it would fit on a football field with a height of less than 10 yards. Used fuel is currently stored on location where it was generated. There is much debate about what to do with it. Move it to a central storage location? Leave it where it is? This research could allow a third option: harnessing the potential energy remaining in the fuel. Recycling resolves the problem of what to do with used fuel, while allowing for its use in powering carbon-free advanced nuclear reactors.

There’s still a lot of work to be done in this area. But the research that EPRI and its partners are conducting can help bring U.S. nuclear fuel recycling closer to reality.