The Obama Administration has dismissed spent-fuel reprocessing systems already used in France and Japan because of security and environmental risks.

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Would it make sense to embrace some sort of closed-fuel cycle, with limited reprocessing of spent fuel?

WSJ: What Should the U.S. Do With Nuclear Waste?

Creating international nuclear fuel banks and shared management of enrichment, reprocessing and spent fuel storage facilities would make nonproliferation sense as well as supporting civil nuclear power in energy-thirsty Asia.

WSJ: U.S. Disarmament Is Dangerous for Asia

The answer lies in its plant for reprocessing spent fuel, built partly to take used fuel from Germany and Japan (which largely paid for its construction) and partly to produce the plutonium that was once expected to be needed as fuel for fast-breeder reactors, in Britain and elsewhere.

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Rokkasho has been seen as a facility that will allow Tokyo to reduce radioactive wastes from its nuclear power plants by reprocessing spent nuclear fuel.

WSJ: U.S. Opposes Japan's Nuclear Plan

South Korean negotiators had been seeking a new nuclear-cooperation agreement with the U.S. that would allow it to begin enriching uranium and reprocessing spent reactor fuel, arguing these technologies are crucial for Seoul to expand and secure its civilian nuclear-power program.

WSJ: U.S. Opposes Japan's Nuclear Plan