US-based fusion and isotopes company SHINE, with a platform serving the nuclear fuel recycling market, is working with GE Vernova to develop a modernised and more efficient system to track used fuel throughout the recycling process. Currently, nuclear operators may use redundant instrumentation, physical security measures, repeated manual sampling and periodic shutdowns to carry out inventory checks of nuclear material within a facility. Material control and accounting are part of a larger safeguards programme run by NRC to ensure nuclear material is not stolen or otherwise diverted.
The collaboration introduces artificial intelligence (AI) and real-time tracking to modernise nuclear material accountability. This initiative aims to safely handle the growing US stockpile of some 94,000 tonnes of used nuclear fuel. The project is funded by the Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) and is led by GE Vernova’s Advanced Research Center.
Working as a subcontractor, SHINE Technologies is integrating “safeguards-by-design” into future commercial reprocessing facilities from the start. The system centres around a technology known as MAYER (Monochromatic Assays Yielding Enhanced Reliability). Instead of traditional periodic shutdowns and manual material sampling, MAYER uses continuous sensor measurements to track isotopes as they flow through a facility.
The tracking data feeds continuously into a virtual digital twin system that mirrors physical operations in real time. Algorithms process the data streams to detect discrepancies, optimise measurements, and maintain precision safeguards. This has a number of commercial and operational benefits:
- Reduced downtime – it minimises the need for facility closures for inventory accounting;
- Lower security thresholds – improved material tracking could allow facilities to operate under a lower Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) security classification; and
- Reduced capital costs – lower security tiers decrease the required physical security infrastructure, making commercial operations economically viable.
“There’s a better way to handle material control and accountability at spent nuclear fuel recycling facilities – one that doesn’t mean permanent cost and disruption,” said SHINE Chief Technical Officer Ross Radel. “As a company designing a recycling process of its own, SHINE is joining the GE Vernova-led collaboration to tackle the design challenge of building modern accountability and safeguards into nuclear recycling facilities from day one. Get that right, and these facilities will be more cost-effective and have less downtime.”
Along with the MAYER collaboration, SHINE announced another partnership designed to pave the way for practical nuclear fuel recycling that turns nuclear “waste” into an energy resource. SHINE’s larger vision for a commercial recycling programme known as the REDUCE (Recover Elements – Destroy Undesirables – Create Energy). Under this framework, SHINE aims to dissolve used fuel to extract valuable uranium and plutonium for new reactor fuels, isolate industrial/medical isotopes, and use fusion-driven neutrons to destroy long-lived radioactive waste.
The cost-competitiveness technologies for the REDUCE process are being advanced through a partnership with Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) and Case Western Reserve University. This specific collaboration focuses on optimising the economic efficiency of nuclear material separation. The partnership integrates ANL’s next-generation chemical processing equipment, known as PaCERS (Packed Centrifugal Equipment for Radiochemical Separation).
The technology uses rapidly spinning equipment to generate centrifugal forces far beyond normal gravity, massively accelerating chemical separation. By significantly lowering the volume of solvents required and scaling up throughput, PaCERS directly lowers the capital and operational costs needed to extract uranium, plutonium, and high-value medical isotopes.
While ANL and Case collaboration handles the chemical separation efficiency for REDUCE, SHINE has also established key private-sector partnerships to close the loop on the recovered material.
SHINE and Orano signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) in February 2024 to cooperate on developing a commercial-scale pilot facility in the US to recycle used nuclear fuel from light water reactors. The partnership aims to extract 99% of usable uranium and plutonium from used fuel.
A strategic partnership was agreed with Standard Nuclear in July 2025 under which an initial one-year framework was set up to establish commercial relationships for utilizing SHINE’s recycled materials to create TRi-structural ISOtropic particle. In May 2026, both SHINE and Standard Nuclear were also jointly selected by the DOE for negotiations regarding the Surplus Plutonium Utilization Program.
SHINE and newcleo entered a collaborative agreement in June to evaluate how SHINE can supply recovered nuclear waste materials to manufacture advanced mixed oxide (mox) fuel. The two companies also stated intentions to jointly pursue US federal funding.
SHINE Technologies expects to begin construction and target operations for its first commercial REDUCE pilot recycling facility in the early 2030s through a phased roadmap to transition its proven radiochemistry into large-scale commercial deployment. SHINE is finishing construction its Chrysalis medical isotope facility in Janesville, Wisconsin backed by a $263m DOE conditional loan. Commercial production at Chrysalis is scheduled for early 2027.
The facility has completed the NRC operating licence review, a critical regulatory pathway that SHINE will replicate for its future recycling facilities. Through DOE’s Genesis Mission and the MAYER project with GE Vernova, SHINE is spending the upcoming months embedding AI layers and advanced sensors into its process chemistry to ensure low capital costs and optimised material tracking.
SHINE is currently engaged in “safeguards-by-design” optimisation modelling through the EPRI-led MARIE consortium. In parallel, technical scoping is underway with partners such as newcleo to finalise joint federal funding proposals for the future facility. SHINE expects to begin construction on the physical commercial recycling pilot facility in the early 2030s. Once operational, the facility features an initial target capacity to process 100 tonnes of used nuclear fuel annually. Developed in cooperation with Orano, this pilot plant will combine SHINE’s separation tech with Orano’s commercial-scale aqueous recycling methods to systematically deal with the US nuclear waste backlog.
