I understand that and agree, but U.S. policy put in place by Jimmy Carter forbids the reprocessing of nuclear fuel in the U.S. It is patently against the law at this time to do so. The only way Yucca Mt. can be utilized now is to vitrify un-reprocessed spent fuel, which is not only wasteful of the nuclear material but will also be wasteful of the square footage in the repository.
I agree, so Congress’ action should not only address Yucca, but it should remove Carter’s foolish law as well. And instead of reinventing the wheel, the U.S. contractors for the reprocessing facilities should partner with others, from other countries already doing it (most likely France).
One has to wonder if Carter was really, in a back handed way trying to kill the nuclear power industry by the problems from not reprocessing the spent fuel.