A nuclear-power revival brings back an old problem: What to do with the waste

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. A nuclear power renaissance—driven in part by power-hungry AI data centers—has revived a thorny problem: what to do with the radioactive waste left behind. Already, more than 90,000 metric tons of spent nuclear fuel is being stored at sites in 39 states.

These include 73 commercial nuclear power plants and more than three dozen university and government facilities, according to a 2024 report by the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. The waste has accumulated in spent-fuel pools and dry casks intended for temporary storage since the U.S. nuclear industry began to take off in the 1960s, and the DOE’s failure to permanently dispose of the waste as required by law has cost taxpayers tens of billions of dollars to compensate the utilities.

New efforts to store nuclear waste away from reactor sites are also getting pushback. On Wednesday, the Supreme Court will hear arguments in a case that will determine whether private companies can temporarily store spent fuel at facilities in Texas and New Mexico. State officials and others have argued that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission exceeded its authority when it granted licenses for the facilities.

A decision isn’t expected in the case until later this year. Meanwhile, nuclear reactors continue to provide almost 20% of U.S. electricity and produce about 2,000 metric tons of waste each year.

As additional plants become available to meet the demands of data centers, industrial plants, homes and electric vehicles, the waste pile is poised to grow even more. The nation’s first new reactors in three decades were completed last year in Georgia. Plans are in the works to reopen closed reactors in Michigan, Iowa, Pennsylvania and South Carolina.