Nuclear waste has long been viewed as one of the most challenging byproducts of clean energy generation, requiring specialized storage facilities and posing long-term environmental risks. However, a new startup company claims to have developed technology that could fundamentally transform how society views spent nuclear fuel—converting what has traditionally been considered dangerous waste into valuable energy resources and rare materials.
The company, Curio, is led by Ed McGinnis, who previously served as acting Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy at the Department of Energy. Under McGinnis’s leadership, Curio has developed what they describe as a revolutionary approach to nuclear fuel reprocessing that could address multiple challenges facing the nuclear energy industry while creating significant economic value from materials currently stored as waste.
The Current Nuclear Landscape and Its Challenges
The United States currently operates 94 commercial nuclear reactors that collectively generate nearly 97 gigawatts of low-carbon electrical power, representing approximately 19 percent of the nation’s total electricity production. This substantial nuclear infrastructure has operated for decades, consistently providing carbon-free baseload power that complements renewable energy sources like wind and solar.
However, the nuclear industry faces several significant challenges that have constrained its growth and raised concerns about long-term sustainability. Much of the uranium supply chain and enrichment infrastructure that supports American nuclear reactors relies heavily on imports from Russia, creating potential national security vulnerabilities and supply chain risks. This dependence became particularly concerning following geopolitical tensions and international sanctions that have disrupted various global supply chains.
Additionally, the rapid expansion of artificial intelligence technologies has created unprecedented demand for reliable, carbon-neutral electricity. Major technology companies, including Microsoft, Google, and Amazon, have been actively seeking large-scale clean energy sources to power their AI data centers and computing infrastructure. This growing demand has renewed interest in nuclear power as a scalable solution for meeting both climate goals and energy security requirements.
Understanding Nuclear Fuel Efficiency and Waste Generation
According to McGinnis, the current approach to nuclear fuel utilization represents a significant missed opportunity in terms of energy extraction and resource recovery. When uranium fuel rods are used in commercial nuclear reactors for approximately five years—the typical operational lifespan—only about 4 percent of their total energy potential is actually consumed during the fission process.
This means that the vast majority of energy value remains locked within spent fuel rods when they are removed from reactors and designated as nuclear waste. Beyond the unused uranium and plutonium that could potentially be reused as fuel, the fission process also creates what McGinnis describes as “a plethora of other highly valuable isotopes” with applications in medical treatments, space exploration, and various industrial processes.
The fission process also produces precious rare metals as byproducts, including rhodium and palladium, which are essential components in catalytic converters and various electronic devices. Other valuable materials generated include krypton-85, which has applications in electronics manufacturing, and americium-241, commonly used in smoke detectors and industrial measurement equipment.
The Scale of Nuclear Waste Accumulation
The accumulation of spent nuclear fuel represents both a significant challenge and a substantial untapped resource. The United States currently stores approximately 90,000 metric tons of highly radioactive spent nuclear fuel, with an additional 2,000 tons being generated annually from ongoing reactor operations. This growing inventory requires specialized storage facilities and long-term management strategies that pose both technical and political challenges.
On a global scale, the nuclear waste challenge is even more substantial. Worldwide, approximately 400,000 tons of spent nuclear fuel have been generated by commercial nuclear power plants, with only about one-third of this material having undergone any form of reprocessing. The majority remains in temporary storage facilities, awaiting long-term disposal solutions that often face significant public opposition and regulatory hurdles.
This massive inventory of spent fuel represents not only an environmental management challenge but also a significant economic opportunity if effective reprocessing technologies can be developed and deployed at commercial scale.
Traditional Reprocessing Challenges and Limitations
Historically, nuclear fuel reprocessing has been associated with significant technical, environmental, and proliferation concerns that have limited its widespread adoption. Traditional reprocessing methods have typically relied on chemical processes involving nitric acid and other hazardous substances, creating additional radioactive contamination and waste streams that can be difficult to manage safely.
These conventional approaches have also raised concerns about nuclear weapons proliferation, as they can separate plutonium in forms that might potentially be used for weapons applications. Additionally, the costs associated with traditional reprocessing have often exceeded the economic value of recovered materials, making such operations financially unviable without substantial government subsidies.
The environmental and safety challenges associated with traditional reprocessing have also contributed to public opposition and regulatory restrictions in many countries, including the United States, where commercial reprocessing operations have been limited for decades.
Curio’s Innovative Dry Processing Technology
Curio claims to have developed a fundamentally different approach to nuclear fuel reprocessing that addresses many of the limitations associated with traditional methods. Their system utilizes what they describe as a dry electrochemical and pyroprocessing approach, which relies on heat and chemical reactions rather than liquid acid processes.
This dry processing method takes advantage of the different physical properties of various materials within spent fuel, including their different boiling points and molecular weights. By carefully controlling temperature and chemical conditions, the process can separate different isotopes and fission products based on these physical characteristics.
The technology also applies controlled electric currents to separate metallic elements, including uranium and plutonium, by taking advantage of the fact that virtually all nuclear fission products are metals or behave like metals under the processing conditions. This electrochemical separation process is designed to produce clean, separated elements that can be further processed or directly utilized in various applications.
Potential Products and Economic Value
If successful, Curio’s processing technology could produce several categories of valuable materials from spent nuclear fuel. The primary output would be recovered uranium that could be reintroduced into nuclear reactors as fresh fuel. According to McGinnis, a single facility using their technology could potentially provide as much as one-third of the entire United States’ annual nuclear uranium requirements.
The process would also recover plutonium that could be utilized in newer reactor designs at low, non-weapons-grade purities. This recovered plutonium could provide additional fuel value while remaining below the enrichment levels that would raise proliferation concerns.
Beyond fuel materials, the process would extract numerous valuable rare materials and isotopes, including rhodium, palladium, krypton, americium, cesium, and strontium. These materials have significant commercial value in various industrial, medical, and technological applications. For example, Curio estimates that their processing of U.S. nuclear waste alone could potentially supply 10 percent of global rhodium demand.
Environmental and Safety Benefits
One of the most significant potential benefits of Curio’s approach relates to nuclear waste management and environmental safety. The reprocessing technology claims to dramatically reduce the radioactive lifespan of nuclear waste materials, transforming waste that remains dangerously radioactive for approximately 10,000 years into materials that pose risks for only a few hundred years.
This reduction in long-term radioactivity could fundamentally change the nuclear waste disposal challenge, making it much easier to identify and develop acceptable long-term storage solutions. Storage facilities that need to remain secure for hundreds of years present far more manageable engineering and institutional challenges than those requiring 10,000-year isolation periods.
The reduction in both the volume and duration of nuclear waste could also make nuclear waste disposal more politically acceptable to communities and governments, potentially removing one of the major barriers to expanded nuclear power deployment.
Current Development Status and Timeline
The development and validation of Curio’s technology is currently being supported through a three-year demonstration contract with the Department of Energy, conducted at a national laboratory facility. This government-funded demonstration project is expected to be completed sometime within the next year, providing crucial data about the technology’s effectiveness and commercial viability.
McGinnis expresses confidence that the technology will prove successful in these demonstration tests. If the results meet expectations, Curio anticipates that a commercial-scale facility could be developed and operational within three to five years following the completion of the demonstration phase.
The Department of Energy’s willingness to fund this demonstration project suggests that government officials view the technology as sufficiently promising to warrant substantial investment in testing and validation.
Strategic Implications for Energy Security
If Curio’s technology proves commercially viable, it could provide strategic benefits for American energy security and independence. By dramatically reducing dependence on foreign uranium supplies, domestic reprocessing could insulate the U.S. nuclear industry from geopolitical disruptions and supply chain vulnerabilities.
The technology could also support the growing demand for clean electricity from the artificial intelligence and technology sectors, providing a domestic source of nuclear fuel to support expanded reactor operations or new reactor construction.
Additionally, the production of valuable rare materials and isotopes from domestic waste could reduce American dependence on foreign sources of these critical materials, many of which are currently dominated by a small number of international suppliers.
Economic and Market Potential
The economic implications of successful nuclear fuel reprocessing extend beyond energy applications to include substantial value creation through rare material recovery. The global markets for materials like rhodium, palladium, and specialized isotopes represent billions of dollars in annual trade, with prices often subject to supply constraints and market volatility.
Developing a domestic source of these materials through nuclear waste reprocessing could create significant economic value while reducing exposure to international market fluctuations and supply disruptions.
Future Implications and Broader Impact
If successful, Curio’s approach could fundamentally transform the nuclear industry’s approach to fuel cycles and waste management. Rather than viewing spent fuel as a liability requiring costly disposal, the industry could treat it as a valuable resource stream supporting both energy production and materials supply chains.
This shift in perspective could improve the economics of nuclear power generation while simultaneously addressing one of the technology’s most significant challenges. The combination of reduced waste disposal costs and additional revenue from recovered materials could make nuclear power more competitive with other energy sources.
The technology’s success could also influence international approaches to nuclear waste management, potentially leading to broader adoption of advanced reprocessing technologies and changes in nuclear fuel cycle economics globally.
Acknowledgment: This article was written with the help of AI, which also assisted in research, drafting, editing, and formatting this current version.
