The rods do get recycled. There is even a plant in Erwin Tennessee, near here, which does the job every day.
Not sure what you are talking about?
According to the NRC:
Reprocessing refers generally to the processes necessary to separate spent nuclear reactor fuel into material that may be recycled for use in new fuel and material that would be discarded as waste. There are no reprocessing facilities currently operating in the United States, but there are facilities operating in foreign countries.
http://www.nrc.gov/materials/reprocessing.html