Molten salt reactors are very safe and can consume and get energy from nuclear waste. Molten Salt Reactors - World Nuclear Association
The problem with nuclear waste is linked to Americas use of breeder reactors to generate fissile material for nuclear weapons. A breeder reactor is a nuclear reactor that generates more fissile material than it consumes. Breeder reactors achieve this because their neutron economy is high enough to create more fissile fuel than they use, by irradiation of a fertile material, such as uranium-238 or thorium-232 that is loaded into the reactor along with fissile fuel. Utilities generate electricity to sell, the federal government buys the enriched fuel to reprocess into nuclear weapons. and Americans live with the unclear waste.
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