While many large nuclear power plants around the U.S. are shutting down, smaller plants that can be deployed in remote places are Energy Department priorities, a top agency official said July 29.
Rita Baranwal, assistant secretary for Nuclear Energy at the department, also said she wants to find ways to extract more use out of nuclear fuel.
“Using only 5% of the useful uranium in nuclear fuel is frankly a waste of resources,” she said at the Women in Nuclear conference in Chicago. “We need to explore reusing and recycling our used nuclear fuel to maximize our energy ...