KEY POINTS
  • There is enough energy in the nuclear waste in the United States to power the entire country for 100 years with clean energy, says Jess C. Gehin at the Idaho National Laboratory.
  • The technology to turn nuclear waste into energy, known as a nuclear fast reactor, has existed for decades. It was proven out by a United States government research lab pilot plant that operated from the 1960s through the 1990s. But it was never economical enough to develop at scale.
  • Several private nuclear innovation companies are developing commercial fast reactors, namely Oklo and TerraPower. But even still, there are supply chain issues in the United States for producing the fuel that goes into fast reactors.
EBR-II at the US Department of Energy's Idaho National Laboratory.

There is enough energy in the nuclear waste in the United States to power the entire country for 100 years, and doing so could help solve the thorny and politically fraught problem of managing spent nuclear waste.

That's according to Jess C. Gehin, an associate laboratory director at Idaho National Laboratory, one of the government's premier energy research labs.