As the U.S. expands nuclear power to provide reliable, carbon-free electricity, it still faces a major challenge: managing the radioactive waste left behind by spent reactor fuel.To help tackle that problem, U.S. Deputy Secretary of Energy James P. Danly on Thursday announced a $5.4 million award to the Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station (TEES) to develop reactor fuel technology that could turn long-lived nuclear waste into a new energy source.”America’s energy future depends on bold innovation and strong partnerships between the federal government, national laboratories, universities and industry,” Danly said. “This project demonstrates how we can address long-term nuclear waste challenges while advancing technologies that strengthen our nation’s energy security,” he added.Nuclear waste into fuelU.S. Department of Energy (DOE) grant supports the project led by Lin Shao, a professor in the Department of Nuclear Engineering at Texas A&M University. According to the University, Shao is examining the possibility of turning nuclear waste into a fuel using a thorium molten salt reactor under this project. Besides investigating methods to address the long-term burden of radioactive nuclear waste, the project would also focus on developing advanced reactor technologies that can provide the reliable energy for future generations, said Shao. Researchers will integrate fuel preparation, experimental testing, computational modeling, and reactor design throughout the project.Texas researchers will collaborate with scientists from Savannah River National Laboratory and industry partner Natura Resources under this project.Waste disposal alternativesMeanwhile, other labs across America are looking at alternative nuclear fuel recycling technologies to slash the radioactive waste storage from thousands of years to just hundreds.Scientists at the Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) have started building technologies that could recycle used fuel for use in advanced reactors. Researchers are turning to pyroprocessing, a technique that uses high temperatures to physically or chemically change solid materials, to convert used fuel into material that can be reused in advanced nuclear reactors.In addition to funding research to recycle nuclear waste into fuel, DOE is also funding studies to find methods to permanently dispose of the radioactive waste left after used nuclear fuel is recycled.According to a study published by the Department over a month ago, researchers found that deep boreholes could provide a safe and relatively low-cost way to permanently discard the radioactive nuclear waste.Deep Isolation, a California-based company founded a decade ago, is working toward real-world deployment of underground disposal of spent nuclear fuel and hazardous nuclear waste. In January 2026, the company launched a full-scale, at-depth commercialization pilot in Cameron, Texas, to demonstrate its deep-borehole disposal system.Underground disposal of nuclear waste is also being pursued by other countries, including Finland, Sweden, and France. However, the technology used by these countries are different from the American deep-borehole technology. The former approach builds geological repositories by blasting and digging massive underground tunnels, shafts, and caverns.Located in Eurajoki, Finland, the facility is the world’s first permanent underground repository for spent nuclear fuel. Built at a depth of more than 400 meters (1,312 feet) deep into 1.9-billion-year-old crystalline bedrock, it will encapsulate and permanently dispose of nuclear waste for over 100,000 years, placed inside disposal canisters designed to keep radioactive spent fuel completely isolated.