Does spent fuel have to be reprocessed?
No. It can simply be dry-stored in a warehouse-type building and kept cool usually by natural convection. In fact around 70-80 percent of spent nuclear waste fuel arisings throughout the world are stored rather than reprocessed. There is no reprocessing carried out by the civil nuclear industry in the United States, for example. The nuclear industry has long argued that Magnox spent fuel must be reprocessed because once the magnesium alloy cladding of the fuel has become wet it reacts chemically with water causing corrosion and degradation. In fact the only dry store ever built in the UK stores Magnox spent fuel next to the Wylfa nuclear power station. More recently BNFL has argued that it would not be economic to introduce dry storage at this late stage in the life-cycle. Nevertheless BNFL has looked at non-reprocessing options, which might be technically feasible. These include dry storage . In 1988 and 1991 the old Central Electricity Generating Board (which then operated nuclear st
