Thursday's announcement that the Department of Energy and TVA will cooperate to develop new technology to reprocess nuclear waste could result in a cleaner environment and lower electricity rates.
Other countries, in particular France, have been recycling spent nuclear fuel for several decades. Japan, England and Russia also reprocess nuclear waste.
Reprocessing technology and the plants that employ it recycle low-level nuclear waste into a more stable form for further use, storage or disposal. The process was first developed by U.S. scientists during World War II.
U.S. Senator Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), a long-time supporter of TVA, a member of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources and a leading proponent of efforts to recycle nuclear material, applauded the agencies' decision to work together.