Recycling of nuclear fuel is a major issue in the industry in the US, where concerns about safely disposing of the spent rods have resulted in political deadlock.

Though uranium is well-known for its radioactivity which creates heat and ultimately electricity in a nuclear power plant, this video from the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) explains the role of a lesser known radioactive element, plutonium.

Everett Redmond, NEI’s director of nonproliferation and fuel cycle policy explains that unlike uranium, plutonium can also be used to recycle spent nuclear fuel cells–a process that Redmond says is already taking place in France.

For more information on the current political debate over storing nuclear waste, read: Face Off Over Nuclear Waste Storage Takes New Twist.

With continued debates over the safety of hydrofracking for natural gas and increasingly tightening emissions standards, creative ways to increase practicality of nuclear power may be a necessity.

In a recent interview with Breaking Energy, former governor Christine Todd Whitman spoke on the importance of the nuclear industry and its ability to generate clean electricity; See Whitman: The Lady’s For Nuclear.