[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 3016 Introduced in Senate (IS)]
<DOC>
119th CONGRESS
1st Session
S. 3016
To require the Secretary of Energy to study new technologies and
opportunities for recycling spent nuclear fuel.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
October 16, 2025
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.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Advancing Research in Nuclear Fuel
Recycling Act of 2025''.
SEC. 2. STUDY ON NEW TECHNOLOGIES TO RECYCLE SPENT NUCLEAR FUEL.
(a) Definitions.--In this section:
(1) National laboratory.--The term ``National Laboratory''
has the meaning given the term in section 2 of the Energy
Policy Act of 2005 (42 U.S.C. 15801).
(2) Nuclear waste.--The term ``nuclear waste'' means spent
nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste (as defined in
section 2 of the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 (42 U.S.C.
10101)).
(3) Recycling.--The term ``recycling'' means the recovery
of valuable radionuclides, including fissile materials, from
nuclear waste, and any subsequent processes, such as enrichment
and fuel fabrication, necessary for reuse in nuclear reactors
or other commercial applications.
(4) Secretary.--The term ``Secretary'' means the Secretary
of Energy.
(5) Spent nuclear fuel.--The term ``spent nuclear fuel''
has the meaning given the term in section 2 of the Nuclear
Waste Policy Act of 1982 (42 U.S.C. 10101).
(b) Study.--Not later than 90 days after the date of enactment of
this Act, the Secretary, acting through the Assistant Secretary for
Nuclear Energy, shall carry out a study--
(1) to analyze the practicability, potential benefits,
costs, and risks, including proliferation, of using dedicated
recycling facilities to convert spent nuclear fuel, including
spent high-assay low-enriched uranium fuel, into useable
nuclear fuels, such as those for--
(A) commercial light water reactors;
(B) advanced nuclear reactors; and
(C) medical, space-based, advanced-battery, and
other non-reactor applications, as determined by the
Secretary;
(2)(A) to analyze the practicability, potential benefits,
costs, and risks of recycling spent nuclear fuel, which is
taken from temporary storage sites throughout the United
States, and using it as fuel or input for advanced nuclear
reactors, existing reactors, or commercial applications;
(B) to compare such practicability, potential benefits,
costs, and risks of recycling spent nuclear fuel with the
practicability, potential benefits, costs, and risks of the
once-through fuel cycle, including temporary and permanent
storage requirements; and
(C) to analyze the practicability, potential benefits,
costs, and risks of aqueous (such as PUREX and the derivatives
of PUREX) recycling processes with the practicability,
potential benefits, costs, and risk of non-aqueous (such as
pyro-electrochemistry) recycling processes;
(3) to analyze the technical and economic feasibility of
utilizing nuclear waste processing to extract certain isotopes
needed for domestic and international use, including medical,
industrial, space-based power source, and advanced-battery
applications;
(4) to analyze the practicability, potential benefits,
costs, risks, and potential approaches for coupling or
collocating recycling facilities with other pertinent
facilities, such as advanced nuclear reactors (that can use the
recycled fuel), interim storage, and fuel-fabrication
facilities, including through--
(A) relevant analyses, such as capital and
operating cost estimates, public-private partnerships
to encourage investment, infrastructure requirements,
timeline to full-scale commercial deployment, and
distinguishing characteristics or requirements of such
facilities;
(B) input from interested private technology
developers and relevant assumptions regarding cost; and
(C) comparison with the practicability, potential
benefits, costs, and risks of the once-through fuel
cycle, including temporary and permanent storage
requirements;
(5) to identify parties, including individuals,
communities, businesses, and local and Tribal governments, that
are impacted economically, or through health, safety, or
environmental risks, by the current practice of indefinite
temporary storage of spent nuclear fuel, and assess potential
risks and benefits for those parties should spent nuclear fuel
be removed from their sites for the purposes of nuclear waste
recycling;
(6) to assess different approaches for siting and sizing
nuclear waste recycling facilities, including a centralized
national facility, regional facilities, on-site facilities
where spent nuclear fuel is currently stored, and on-site
facilities where newly recycled fuel can be used by an on-site
reactor, and recommend one or more approaches that consider
environmental, transportation, infrastructure, capital, and
other risks;
(7) to identify tracking and accountability methods for new
recycled fuel and radioactive waste streams for byproducts of
the recycling process;
(8)(A) to identify any regulatory gaps related to nuclear
waste management and recycling, including accuracy and
consistency of relevant definitions for radioactive waste
(including ``high-level radioactive waste'', ``spent nuclear
fuel'', ``low-level radioactive waste'', ``reprocessing'',
``recycling'', and ``vitrification'') and classifications of
radioactive waste that exist in Federal law on the date of
enactment of this Act;
(B) to compare such definitions to those used by other
nations that manage radioactive waste; and
(C) to make recommendations for modernizing such
definitions; and
(9) to evaluate--
(A) potential Federal and State-level policy
changes to support development and deployment of
recycling and waste-utilizing reactor technologies; and
(B) impacts of spent nuclear fuel recycling on
requirements for domestic nuclear waste storage.
(c) Report.--Not later than 1 year after the date of enactment of
this Act, the Secretary, acting through the Assistant Secretary for
Nuclear Energy, shall submit to the Committee on Energy and Natural
Resources of the Senate, the Committee on Energy and Commerce of the
House of Representatives, the Committee on Science, Space, and
Technology of the House of Representatives, and the Committee on
Natural Resources of the House of Representatives, a report that
complies with each of the following:
(1) Describes the results of the study carried out under
subsection (b).
(2) Is released to the public.
(3) Totals not more than 120 pages (excluding Front Matter,
References, and Appendices) written and formatted to facilitate
review by a nonspecialist readership, including the following
sections:
(A) A Front Matter section that includes a cover
page with identifying information, tables of contents,
figures, and tables.
(B) An Executive Summary section.
(C) An Introductory section that includes a
historical overview that also explains why recycling is
not performed in the United States today, such as
economic, political, or technological obstacles.
(D) Results and Findings sections that summarize
the results and findings of the study carried out under
subsection (b).
(E) A Key Remaining Challenges and Barriers section
that identifies key technical and nontechnical (such as
economic) challenges and barriers that need to be
addressed to enable scale-up and commercial adoption of
spent nuclear fuel recycling, with preference given to
secure, proliferation resistant, environmentally safe,
and economical recycling methods.
(F) A Policy Recommendations section that--
(i) lists policy recommendations to address
remaining technical and nontechnical (such as
economic) challenges and barriers to enable
scale-up and commercial adoption of spent
nuclear fuel recycling, including with
government support;
(ii) contrasts the potential benefits and
risks of each policy; and
(iii) compares benefits to current or past
policies.
(G) An Other section in which other relevant
information may be added.
(H) A References section.
(I) An Appendices section.
<all>