(cheerful music) - We can recycle paper, plastic, even glass.

But what about nuclear fuel?

Michael Simpson is here to break down the science behind a breakthrough that could reshape sustainable energy.

Welcome to the show, Michael.

- Thank you.

It's exciting to be here, thank you.

- I'm excited to have you here.

Tell me about this breakthrough that I hear happened at the University of Utah.

- Well, we've been working on a project for about three years now to figure out how to safely dissolve spent nuclear fuel and then electrochemically separate it into different streams.

And one of those streams, we send it right back to make new fuel.

And then that removes a lot of the very toxic, long-lived radio isotopes that would be in the waste.

- Wow, safely is one of the things that people are concerned about when it comes to doing this, and also the price.

People wonder if it's something that can be possibly affordable or sustainable.

What are your thoughts on that?

- Yeah, yeah, sure.

And that's a big deal, and that's probably why over the last, you know, 20, 30 years, no one has really tried to commercialize nuclear fuel recycling.

But things are changing because companies are coming out with new types of nuclear reactors that use a special kind of fuel called HALEU.

And we have the opportunity to feed those same type of reactors with this recycled fuel.

And the cost is gonna be quite a bit, you know, the price is gonna work out in terms of the market and the cost of doing it.

So, yeah, I think it's a big opportunity we have here, yeah.

- Yeah.

That's incredible.

And you're just scratching the surface about what your discussion is going to be about.

Can you tell us about the event that's coming up?

- Yeah, so I'm gonna be talking at the Alta Club next week, and basically I'm gonna try to bring the audience into, like, what is spent fuel, why should we wanna recycle it, why should Utah wanna be involved with this?

And this is something that the governor's office is pushing right now.

And then I'll talk to 'em about the technology we've been developing at University of Utah and why I think it's so exciting and such a game changer.

- Wow, well, thank you so much for letting us know and giving us a sneak peek of what people can check out at this event.

We have the information on your screen.

It's being sponsored by the Utah Academy of Engineering and Science.

It's called "What is Nuclear Recycling, & How Can It Benefit Utah?"

It's a seminar.

April 29th from 8:00 to 9:00 AM at the Alta Club, and I hear you don't even have to be a member in order to attend.

So you can go online, be sure to RSV because there is limited space there, but you can get all your questions answered and learn more about this new breakthrough.

I'm Liz Adeola.

Thank you for watching "Contact."

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