Engineering360: "Recycling used nuclear fuel with a one-step strategy"

It would of been beneficial to list how much nuclear waste is still left in the rod after processing. The storage of nuclear rods poses a more serious threat to our planet than any other man made process. It's really absurd to let humans take care of something as lethal as spent rods for 10000 years!

Hopefully, this process will reduce or eliminate the threat of spent nuclear rods.

A more serious threat. I disagree; after reading about the huge amounts of plastics in the ocean and environment, could something like this be worse? And how about global warming with the CO2 and methane in the atmosphere?

All you listed are bad but can be mitigated with time and effort. The release of radiation from the stored nuclear rods is instance. This could come from terrorists, earthquakes, conventional or nuclear war. And, this could happen within a 10000 year time frame! Do you trust humans to keep the spent nuclear rods safe for 10000 years?

Congratulations on the recent process to recycle nuclear fuel rods!! I'm not any nuclear physicist or have any background in nuclear science but I'm a big fan of the process to recycle the nuclear waste we currently have. Would it be possible to get information (at the 10,000 ft level) about the single step process? General questions, such as:

1. How much toxic waste is generated from this process?
2. What type of toxic waste is generated?
3. What is the percentage of recovery, from say 100lbs of nuclear rods?
4. After the process is complete, what is left? (beside the fissionable material)?
5. What is the cost of this process, is it cheaper than burying it for 20,000 years?
6. How long does the process take to recycle, say, 100lbs of material?

Thank you for any information you could provide an interested fan. I really believe in reusing what we've already used and feel there is a place for nuclear power in regards to reusing this fissionable material. Small up-to-date SMR or MSR could use this fuel to generate hydrogen fuel for commercial use, trucking, planes, electric generation.

Since this testing is on a laboratory scale, will it scale up to production levels? As others have asked, what is the percentage yield of this process, and how much of the fissionable material is left behind?

What happens if you add thorium to the mix? Will the resulting mixture be suitable for use as fuel in a fast (Generation IV) reactor?