II 

118TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION S. 5157 

To require the Secretary of Energy to study new technologies and 

opportunities for recycling spent nuclear fuel, and for other purposes. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

SEPTEMBER 24, 2024 

Mr. CRUZ (for himself and Mr. HEINRICH) introduced the following bill; which 

was read twice and referred to the Committee on Energy and Natural 

Resources 

A BILL 

To require the Secretary of Energy to study new technologies 

and opportunities for recycling spent nuclear fuel, and 

for other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Advancing Research 

5 in Nuclear Fuel Recycling Act of 2024’’. 

6 SEC. 2. STUDY ON NEW TECHNOLOGIES TO RECYCLE 

7 SPENT NUCLEAR FUEL. 

8 (a) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 


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1 (1) NATIONAL LABORATORY.—The term ‘‘Na2 tional Laboratory’’ has the meaning given the term 

3 in section 2 of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (42 

4 U.S.C. 15801). 

5 (2) NUCLEAR WASTE.—The term ‘‘nuclear 

6 waste’’ means spent nuclear fuel and high-level ra7 dioactive waste, as defined in section 2 of the Nu8 clear Waste Policy Act of 1982 (42 U.S.C. 10101). 

9 (3) RECYCLING.—The term ‘‘recycling’’ means 

10 the recovery of valuable radionuclides, including 

11 fissile materials, from nuclear waste, and any subse12 quent processes, such as enrichment and fuel fab13 rication, necessary for reuse in nuclear reactors or 

14 other commercial applications. 

15 (4) SPENT NUCLEAR FUEL.—The term ‘‘spent 

16 nuclear fuel’’ has the meaning given in section 2 of 

17 the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 (42 U.S.C. 

18 10101). 

19 (b) STUDY.— 

20 (1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 90 days after 

21 the date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary of 

22 Energy shall seek to enter into an agreement with 

23 the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, 

24 and Medicine to assemble an independent committee 


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1 of experts to author the study described in this sub2 section. 

3 (2) INDIVIDUALS NOT TO BE INCLUDED.—The 

4 independent committee of experts shall not include 

5 any of the same individuals who authored the report, 

6 ‘‘Merits and Viability of Different Nuclear Fuel Cy7 cles and Technology Options and the Waste Aspects 

8 of Advanced Nuclear Reactors (2023)’’, but those 

9 same individuals may advise the independent com10 mittee of experts. 

11 (3) INDEPENDENT COMMITTEE OF EXPERTS.— 

12 The independent committee of experts shall consist 

13 of subject matter experts from stakeholders, such as 

14 the Office of Nuclear Energy of the Department of 

15 Energy, the National Laboratories, academia, indus16 try, and other relevant stakeholder groups, as deter17 mined by the Secretary— 

18 (A) to analyze the practicability, potential 

19 benefits, costs, and risks, including prolifera20 tion, of using dedicated recycling facilities to 

21 convert spent nuclear fuel, including spent high22 assay low-enriched uranium fuel, into useable 

23 nuclear fuels, such as those for— 

24 (i) commercial light water reactors; 

25 (ii) advanced nuclear reactors; and 


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1 (iii) medical, space-based, advanced2 battery, and other non-reactor applications, 

3 as determined by the Secretary; 

4 (B) to— 

5 (i) analyze the practicability, potential 

6 benefits, costs, and risks of recycling spent 

7 nuclear fuel, which is taken from tem8 porary storage sites throughout the United 

9 States, and using it as fuel or input for ad10 vanced reactors, existing reactors, or com11 mercial applications; 

12 (ii) compare such practicability, po13 tential benefits, costs, and risks of recy14 cling spent nuclear fuel with the practica15 bility, potential benefits, costs, and risks of 

16 the once-through fuel cycle, including tem17 porary and permanent storage require18 ments; and 

19 (iii) analyze the practicability, poten20 tial benefits, costs, and risks of aqueous 

21 (such as PUREX and its derivatives) recy22 cling processes with the practicability, po23 tential benefits, costs, and risk of non24 aqueous (such as pyro-electrochemistry) re25 cycling processes; 


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1 (C) to analyze the technical and economic 

2 feasibility of utilizing nuclear waste processing 

3 to extract certain isotopes needed for domestic 

4 and international use, including medical, indus5 trial, space-based power source, and advanced6 battery applications; 

7 (D) to analyze the practicability, potential 

8 benefits, costs, risks, and potential approaches 

9 for coupling or collocating recycling facilities 

10 with other pertinent facilities, such as advanced 

11 reactors (that can use the recycled fuel), in12 terim storage, and fuel-fabrication facilities, in13 cluding— 

14 (i) relevant analyses, such as capital 

15 and operating cost estimates, public-pri16 vate partnerships to encourage investment, 

17 infrastructure requirements, timeline to 

18 full-scale commercial deployment, and dis19 tinguishing characteristics or requirements 

20 of such facilities; 

21 (ii) input from interested private tech22 nology developers and relevant assumptions 

23 regarding cost; and 

24 (iii) comparison with the practica25 bility, potential benefits, costs, and risks of 


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1 the once-through fuel cycle, including tem2 porary and permanent storage require3 ments; 

4 (E) to identify parties, including individ5 uals, communities, businesses, and local and 

6 Tribal governments, that are impacted economi7 cally, or through health, safety, or environ8 mental risks, by the current practice of indefi9 nite temporary storage of spent nuclear fuel, 

10 and assess potential risks and benefits for these 

11 parties should spent nuclear fuel be removed 

12 from their sites for the purposes of nuclear 

13 waste recycling; 

14 (F) to assess different approaches for 

15 siting and sizing nuclear waste recycling facili16 ties, including a centralized national facility, re17 gional facilities, on-site facilities where spent 

18 nuclear fuel is currently stored, and on-site fa19 cilities where newly recycled fuel can be used by 

20 an on-site reactor, and recommend one or more 

21 approaches that consider environmental, trans22 portation, infrastructure, capital, and other 

23 risks; 

24 (G) to identify tracking and accountability 

25 methods for new recycled fuel and radioactive 


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1 waste streams for byproducts of the recycling 

2 process; 

3 (H) to— 

4 (i) identify any regulatory gaps re5 lated to nuclear waste management and re6 cycling, including accuracy and consistency 

7 of relevant definitions for radioactive waste 

8 (including ‘‘high-level radioactive waste’’, 

9 ‘‘spent nuclear fuel’’, ‘‘low-level radioactive 

10 waste’’, ‘‘reprocessing’’, ‘‘recycling’’, and 

11 ‘‘vitrification’’) and classifications of radio12 active waste that exist in Federal law on 

13 the date of enactment of this Act; 

14 (ii) compare such definitions to those 

15 used by other nations that manage radio16 active waste; and 

17 (iii) make recommendations for mod18 ernizing such definitions; and 

19 (I) to evaluate— 

20 (i) potential Federal and State-level 

21 policy changes to support development and 

22 deployment of recycling and waste-utilizing 

23 reactor technologies; and 


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1 (ii) impacts of spent nuclear fuel recy2 cling on requirements for domestic nuclear 

3 waste storage. 

4 (c) REPORT.—Not later than 12 months after the 

5 date on which the agreement described under subsection 

6 (b) is entered, the Secretary of Energy shall submit to 

7 the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation 

8 of the Senate, the Committee on Energy and Natural Re9 sources of the Senate, the Committee on Energy and Com10 merce of the House of Representatives, the Committee on 

11 Science, Space, and Technology of the House of Rep12 resentatives, and the Committee on Natural Resources of 

13 the House of Representatives, a report that complies with 

14 each of the following: 

15 (1) Describes the results of the study. 

16 (2) Is released to the public. 

17 (3) Totals not more than 120 pages (excluding 

18 Front Matter, References, and Appendices) written 

19 and formatted to facilitate review by a nonspecialist 

20 readership, including the following sections: 

21 (A) A Front Matter section that includes a 

22 cover page with identifying information, tables 

23 of contents, figures, and tables. 

24 (B) An Executive Summary section. 


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1 (C) An Introductory section that includes a 

2 historical overview that also explains why recy3 cling is not performed in the United States 

4 today, such as economic, political, or techno5 logical obstacles. 

6 (D) Results and Findings sections that 

7 summarize the results and findings of the study 

8 described in subsection (b). 

9 (E) A Key Remaining Challenges and Bar10 riers section that identifies key technical and 

11 nontechnical (such as economic) challenges and 

12 barriers that need to be addressed to enable 

13 scale-up and commercial adoption of spent nu14 clear fuel recycling, with preference given to se15 cure, proliferation resistant, environmentally 

16 safe, and economical recycling methods. 

17 (F) A Policy Recommendations section 

18 that— 

19 (i) lists policy recommendations to ad20 dress remaining technical and nontechnical 

21 (such as economic) challenges and barriers 

22 to enable scale-up and commercial adop23 tion of spent nuclear fuel recycling, includ24 ing with government support; 


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1 (ii) contrasts the potential benefits 

2 and risks of each policy; and 

3 (iii) compares benefits to current or 

4 past policies. 

5 (G) An Other section in which other rel6 evant information may be added. 

7 (H) A References section. 

8 (I) An Appendices section. 

Æ 


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