: My understanding was that you aren't supposed to "recycle" the pebbles's nuclear material in the usual way: the special encapsulation is supposed to be "for life", including disposal. Sealed unit, no user-serviceable parts. This is part of the attraction of the pebble design: it's supposed to be an idiot-proof, mass-production, streamed commodity product. With fuel rods, you have to take them to a special plant and chop them up and expose their horrid radioactive innards before reencapsulating the worst bits for burial, with "pebbles" you don't.