Looks like the Yucca Mt. spent nuclear fuel repository is dead in the water and now the focus seems to be shifting to spent fuel recycling. There are a couple of problem issues: 1) there is an abundance of uranium in the world and 2) spent nuclear fuel typically contains a significant quantity of radioactive Tc-99 (half-life of 211,000 years) and a few others in lesser amounts such as Np-237 (half-life of 2.14 million years).
Recycling unburned U-235 is not too difficult. It was done in the 1950s and 1960s. Some of this recycled fuel was re-enriched a the Oak Ridge Gaseous Diffusion Plant (K-25) in the 1960s and created a lot of 'new' radioactive contamination from these residual radioisotopes. This has become problematic today as Bechtel-Jacobs LLC attempts to demolish this facility and deal with tons of radioactive debris with significant levels of Tc-99.
There are technical solutions to these problems, but political issues typically rule the day.
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