A New Use For Nuclear Waste: Nuclear Power

If used nuclear fuel is still so dangerous that we have to bury it in mountains, why can’t we keep producing electricity from it? New initiatives around the world are exploring the energy potential of nuclear recycling.

Nuclear power, for some, is a vast, emissions-free energy source powering a post-fossil-fuel future that doesn’t cook our planet. For others, it is enough to point at Chernobyl, the vast contaminated wasteland surrounding Fukushima, and thousands of spent fuel rods in ominous, temporary storage pools to suggest a fuel not safe to handle for 240,000 years after its use is an unacceptable way to run our lightbulbs and appliances.

For much of the world, however, shutting down nuclear power will not be an economic option (or even desirable one) for quite some time. The 400 or so reactors worldwide–and a spate of new ones under construction and in the proposal stage–are going to dump their fuel somewhere. Or will they?

See the full story from Fast Company here