SHINE, Argonne National Laboratory, and Case Western Reserve University advance high-throughput nuclear fuel recycling

SHINE, a fusion energy company developing a nuclear fuel recycling platform, is collaborating with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory in Lemont, Illinois, and Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, to apply advanced chemical separation technology to SHINE’s nuclear fuel recycling process.

The partners are working under the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) CURIE Program, with additional funding led by Case Western Reserve University, where SHINE participates as a subcontractor. The goal is to improve the efficiency, economics and scalability of nuclear fuel recycling so that spent nuclear fuel can be transformed into a valuable energy resource.

Turning spent nuclear fuel into a resource

Although often described as nuclear ‘waste', spent nuclear fuel still contains around 90% of its original energy potential and yields valuable byproducts with applications in medicine, manufacturing and advanced power systems.

Federal initiatives and growing private investment have renewed interest in nuclear fuel recycling as a way to enhance energy security, reduce long-term waste storage requirements and recover high-value materials such as uranium, plutonium and key radioisotopes.

SHINE’s collaboration with Argonne National Laboratory and Case Western Reserve University focuses on integrating next-generation separation technologies into a practical, high-throughput recycling process. This work supports SHINE’s broader objective of making nuclear energy effectively renewable by recovering useful materials and mitigating long-lived radioactive waste.

Applying PaCERS technology to nuclear fuel recycling

Argonne National Laboratory is developing new chemical processing equipment known as Packed Centrifugal Equipment for Radiochemical Separation, or PaCERS. This technology uses rapidly spinning equipment to generate centrifugal forces far beyond ordinary gravity, significantly increasing the efficiency of chemical separations. PaCERS offers a high-throughput, lower-solvent approach that can make multiple stages of nuclear fuel recycling more economical and scalable.

Within this collaboration, SHINE is working with Argonne and Case Western Reserve University to apply PaCERS technology to several key separation processes. These include processes that separate radioisotopes such as strontium-90 and americium-241, which are important for medical applications, industrial manufacturing and advanced power systems.

PaCERS will also be incorporated into the process for recovering minor actinides, long-lived radioactive materials that remain after other elements have been extracted from spent nuclear fuel.

Advancing medical isotopes and minor actinide recovery

By leveraging its existing expertise in isotope production, SHINE aims to accelerate the practical deployment of PaCERS in real-world nuclear fuel recycling operations. The company already separates radioactive materials to produce medical isotopes and is now extending that know-how to support advanced nuclear fuel recycling.

“Spent nuclear fuel is a tremendous resource, having many valuable materials that can be recovered instead of stored or even worse, disposed of. We already separate radioactive materials to produce medical isotopes today, and we’re applying that same expertise to help push PaCERS toward practical use,” said Ross Radel, CTO of SHINE. “It’s another piece of the work we’re doing to make nuclear energy effectively renewable.”

By improving the recovery of strontium-90, americium-241 and minor actinides, the collaboration aims to unlock new value streams from spent nuclear fuel while reducing the volume and long-term radiotoxicity of residual waste.

Reducing long-lived radioactive waste through transmutation

The transmutation of long-lived radioactive waste into shorter-lived forms is a central element of SHINE’s long-term nuclear waste mitigation strategy. SHINE is validating how fusion-generated neutrons can transmute long-lasting isotopes into materials that require isolation for decades rather than millennia, under a separate grant with the U.S. Department of Energy.

Combining advanced separation technologies such as PaCERS with neutron-based transmutation could significantly reduce the burden on geological repositories and support a more sustainable nuclear fuel cycle.

Strengthening nuclear material control and accountability

In addition to its work with Argonne National Laboratory and Case Western Reserve University, SHINE is participating in another project aimed at enabling practical nuclear fuel recycling that turns ‘waste’ into an energy resource. This project focuses on modernizing nuclear material control and accountability, an essential requirement for the safe, secure and proliferation-resistant deployment of advanced recycling technologies.

By improving how nuclear materials are tracked and managed throughout the recycling process, SHINE and its partners aim to support regulatory confidence and public trust in next-generation nuclear fuel cycles.

Supporting SHINE’s REDUCE nuclear fuel recycling process

These technologies directly support the cost competitiveness SHINE is targeting in its Recover Elements – Destroy Undesirables – Create Energy nuclear fuel recycling process, known as REDUCE. The REDUCE process is designed to enable the efficient, proliferation-resistant extraction of uranium, plutonium and other high-value materials from spent nuclear fuel.

By integrating PaCERS-based separations, advanced material control systems and fusion-driven transmutation, SHINE is working toward the first commercial application of advanced nuclear fuel recycling technologies that can:

• Recover valuable elements and radioisotopes from spent nuclear fuel
• Reduce the long-term radiotoxicity and storage requirements of residual waste
• Enhance the economic viability of nuclear power by unlocking additional energy value

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