Re: To what extent are nuclear fuels currently recycled?

The following information can be found at:

     http://www.uic.com.au/ne5.htm

Over the forty years to 1995, more than 55,000 tonnes of spent fuel from 
commercial power reactors was reprocessed, and annual capacity for 
reprocessing, worldwide, is now over 5000 tonnes per year.

World Commercial Reprocessing Capacity 

Light water reactor fuel: 
  France, La Hague            1600 tonnes per year
  UK, Sellafield (THORP)      1200 
  Russia, Mayak                400
  Japan                         90

  total LWR                   3290
 
Other nuclear fuels: 
  UK, Sellafield              1500
  France, Marcoule             400
  India                        200
  total                       2100
 
Total civil capacity          5400

A great deal of reprocessing has been going on since the 1940s, mainly for 
military purposes, to recover plutonium for weapons. In the UK, metal fuel 
elements from the first generation gas-cooled commercial reactors have been 
reprocessed at Sellafield for about 40 years. The 1500 t/yr plant has been 
successfully developed to keep abreast of evolving safety, hygiene and 
other regulatory standards. From 1969 to 1973 oxide fuels were also 
reprocessed, using part of the plant modified for the purpose. A new 1200 
t/yr thermal oxide reprocessing plant (THORP) was commissioned in 1994. 

In the USA, there is a technical and political saga and no plants are now 
operating. Three plants for the reprocessing of civilian oxide fuels have
been built in USA: the first, a 300 t/yr plant at West Valley, N.Y., was 
built and operated successfully from 1966-72. However, increasingly
severe regulatory requirements meant plant modifications which were deemed 
uneconomic, and the plant was shut down. The second was a
300 t/yr plant built at Morris, Illinois, incorporating new technology 
which, although proven on a pilot-scale, failed to work successfully in the
production plant. The third was a 1500 t/yr plant at Barnwell, South 
Carolina, which was aborted due to a change in government policy which
ruled out all US civilian reprocessing as one facet of US non-proliferation 
policy. In all, the USA has over 250 plant-years of reprocessing
operational experience, the vast majority being at government-operated 
defence plants since the 1940s.

In France one 400 t/yr reprocessing plant is operating for metal fuels from 
gas-cooled reactors at Marcoule. At La Hague, reprocessing of
oxide fuels has been done since 1976, and two 800 t/yr plants are now 
operating. India has a 150 t/yr oxide fuel plant operating at Tarapur, and
Japan is building a major plant at Rokkasho while having most of its spent 
fuel reprocessed in Europe meanwhile. It has had a small (100 t/yr)
plant operating. Russia has a 400 t/yr oxide fuel reprocessing plant at 
Mayak.