Congressional Research Service, The Library of Congress: As part of the World War II effort to develop the atomic bomb, reprocessing technology was developed to chemically separate and recover fissionable plutonium from irradiated nuclear fuel. Federally sponsored breeder reactor development included research into advanced reprocessing technology. President Carter terminated federal support for reprocessing in an attempt to limit the proliferation of nuclear weapons material. The Department of Energy now proposes a new generation of “proliferation-resistant” reactor and reprocessing technology.
