Whether we can reprocess the fuel I think misses a larger point. We disassemble and save parts because we don't - can't - build more. I'm told by Livermore nu

Whether we can reprocess the fuel I think misses a larger point. We disassemble and save parts because we don't - can't - build more. I'm told by Livermore nuclear weapons engineers (admittedly anecdotal hearsay) that it's crazy not to test these weapons. They degrade and fail in ways and at speeds not unanticipated, and computer modeling could not replace actual testing (at least back in ~2000-2005). So we built a bunch in a rush, found they might last 3 years or 7 years or some other random number, and now... we hold on to them and hope they work, or hope they'll work with scavenged replacement parts. I'm sure a few carefully curated ones work, but the failure rate could be closer to 90% than 10%. Perhaps our negligence will save us all.