Cost-effective fuel cycle closure

The U.S. government is moving toward meeting its obligation to accept spent fuel from commercial light water reactors (LWRs) in 1998 by providing an interim storage facility. Site work and analysis of the deep, geologic repository at Yucca Mountain will continue at a reduced level of effort. This provides the time required to reevaluate the use of spent-fuel recycling instead of direct disposal. A preliminary assessment of this option is presented in this paper.