Timothy Gardner and Valerie Volcovici

WASHINGTON (Reuters] – Thursday’s announcement by the U.S. Energy Department saw $36 million allocated to projects to deal with toxic waste that could be generated from a new type of nuclear reactors. This is a critical step in combating climate change, according to the Biden administration.

These 11 projects were funded by the ARPA-E department supporting energy research into high-risk but potentially transformative projects. The administration hopes to speed up technologies for tackling waste from advanced reactor fuel cycle.

These new reactors are likely to produce less, but much more radioactive material than current ones. According to Department officials, the project is trying to solve the problem of waste before reactors go commercial. This they expect will be sometime in 2030.

Jennifer Granholm from Energy said in a statement that she was working on novel ways to manage nuclear waste. This will help us power even more homes, businesses and households with non-carbon-free energy.

As states work to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the Biden administration has encouraged deployment of reactors that produce virtually no emissions and can be used to supplement intermittent power sources such as wind or solar. The technology could also be exported.

TerraPower is one of the grant recipients. It was founded by Bill Gates, a billionaire who hopes to construct a demonstration reactor plant for advanced nuclear technology in Wyoming. The Energy Department also supports TerraPower.

To develop a safe method of recovering uranium safely from nuclear fuel, the venture will be awarded more than $8.5million. It also has to deal with volatility caused by high-temperature chloride salts.

The Idaho National Laboratory will receive $2 million for another project, and $4 million will be awarded to Oklo (California) for studying the feasibility of an used nuclear fuel recycle facility.

The other projects are one that transforms waste into dense cement, and another that burys waste deeply in the ground.

Reprocessing waste is a common project. This technique has not been used in America for many decades because of proliferation and expense concerns. Officials from ARPA-E stated that it was not their decision whether reprocessing would take place. However, these projects will inform policymakers about what’s feasible.

USA has faced competition from Russia and China who both want advanced reactors.

The United States generates half its clean electricity from nuclear energy. Some nuclear reactors will be powered by fuel enriched as high as 20% uranium, which is far more than what we have today and could make it a potential target for militants planning to develop radioactive weapons.