Trump Orders Nuclear Power Promotion, Highlights Spent Fuel Recycling
President Donald Trump has issued an executive order promoting nuclear power and highlighting recycling as a solution for managing spent nuclear fuel. This comes as the U.S. faces a growing challenge with approximately 80,000 metric tons of spent fuel stored at power plants nationwide.
The U.S. currently has seventy-nine nuclear power plants with on-site spent fuel storage. As of 2025, the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) alone will have 3.55 million pounds of irradiated fuel in temporary dry-cask storage. The U.S. has not had a commercial reprocessing facility for spent fuel since the 1970s, and there is no permanent nuclear waste repository.
Recycling spent nuclear fuel involves separating uranium and/or plutonium for reuse as reactor fuel. This process is already underway in France and Japan, but they still face challenges in managing remaining waste. The U.S. is pursuing a deep geological repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, but progress has been stalled due to political opposition. Meanwhile, interim storage licenses for private facilities are being issued.
Tech giants like Microsoft, Amazon, and Google are investing in new nuclear projects and supporting the extension or recommissioning of existing plants. This is driven by the increasing power demands from data centers, estimated to grow by 165 percent globally by 2030.
President Trump's executive order aims to address the growing challenge of spent nuclear fuel management in the U.S. While recycling offers a solution, it also presents its own set of challenges. With increasing support for nuclear energy and growing power demands, the need for effective spent fuel management has become more pressing.
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