Commercial reactors are enriched to about 3% plus or minus a bit. Military (naval) reactors are very highly enriched to minimize the size needed. The cost and a

Commercial reactors are enriched to about 3% plus or minus a bit. Military (naval) reactors are very highly enriched to minimize the size needed. The cost and availability of the uranium has never been the problem. The Carter administration stopped the recovery of the unused uranium in spent fuel thus making the waste problem much worse for the industry. We have decades worth of perfectly good uranium sitting in spent fuel pools all over the country but are unable, by law, to recover it.