S. 2082 — Nuclear REFUEL Act of 2025

This section expands the exclusion from the definition of production facility under the Atomic Energy Act to include facilities reprocessing spent nuclear fuel in a manner that does not separate plutonium from other transuranic elements (previously limited to facilities separating isotopes of uranium or enriching uranium in the isotope 235). (Production facilities are designed or used to produce special nuclear material—i.e., plutonium-239, uranium-233, or uranium enriched to at least 20% in the isotopes uranium-235 or uranium-233—and are subject to licensing by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Thus, the added exclusion may subject such reprocessing facilities to a different licensing regime.)