Jimmy Carter Killed This Technology 50 Years Ago. Congress Is About To Fund Its Revival.

The nuclear waste sitting at power plants across the United States contains enough energy to power the country for more than 100 years. But recycling spent uranium fuel was banned in 1977 because President Jimmy Carter feared that nuclear reprocessing could lead to more production of atomic weapons.

In the last 47 years, China, France, Japan, Russia and the United Kingdom have all developed the tools to recycle nuclear waste. The U.S., by contrast, made a plan to bury that spent fuel underground and even built a facility — but then abandoned the strategy without any clear alternative.

That may soon change.

The short-term spending bill passed this week in the U.S. House to avert a government shutdown contains the first major funding for commercializing technology to recycle nuclear waste.

The legislation earmarks $10 million for a cost-sharing program to help private nuclear startups pay for the expensive federal licensing process ― and for the first time explicitly makes waste-recycling companies eligible, according to separate documents from Congress explaining what’s in the 1,050-page bill that passed Wednesday.

“There is developing commercial interest in nuclear-fuel recycling,” said Craig Piercy, the chief executive of the American Nuclear Society. “What Congress is doing is providing some assistance to begin exploring the regulatory pathways to allow this to become a commercial reality.”

It’s a relatively small down payment to help launch an industry that may ultimately require billions to get off the ground. But its inclusion in a spending bill with support from both Republicans and Democrats represents a shift on what was once one of the most polarizing issues with atomic energy. While the funding was a