Mini Nuclear Reactors Land in Scientific Spat Over Waste Output

A public fight over an academic study that cast doubt on advanced nuclear reactors’ waste promises has heightened a rift between supporters and skeptics of the technology as policy-makers seek to boost nuclear’s role in meeting climate-change goals.

The fight has thrust the new reactor designs into one of nuclear energy’s political liabilities: the unaddressed question on what to do with nuclear waste.

The study, co-authored by a former Nuclear Regulatory Commission chair, has come under fire from advanced reactor developers who argue it relied on outdated design criteria and skewed the volume of waste that could ...