A nuclear power currently contributes to merely 2.1% of the electricity generation in China, fast growth of the industry is expected in the near future to meet the soaring energy demand in the highly industrialized coastal regions without exacerbating the environmental problems. Unlike several countries (Germany, Switzerland, and Spain) that have adopted thepolicy of nuclear power phase-out after the Fukushimanuclear accident, China remains committed to expansion of nuclear power, driven largely by the pressure to reduce the widespread air pollution brought by coal-fired power generation.With imminent restart of new nuclear projects in the coastal regions, a boom of nuclear power is upcoming inChina. AlthoughChina has become largely self-sufficient in the design and engineering of nuclear reactors, recycling of spent nuclear fuel and final disposal of highlevel radioactive waste remains the weakest link in its nuclear power chain. We believe it is urgent to accelerate the country’s development of commercial reprocessing capacity for spent fuel and permanent geological storage for high-level waste. China currently has 22 operating nuclear reactors with a total installed capacity of slightly over 19GW(Figure 1).With another 26 reactors under construction, the total installed nuclear capacity is expected to rise to 46 GW by 2019. The official agenda for nuclear generating capacity used to be 70−80, 200, and 400−500 GW by 2020, 2030, and 2050, respectively. Due to safety concerns after the Fukushima accident, a moratorium on the construction of new nuclear projects has been imposed. While remaining committed to expansion of nuclear power, the target for 2020 has been revised to 58GW installed capacity with 30GW under construction. In addition to those under construction, 12 more reactors need to be built before 2020 to meet this goal. It is widely believed that new nuclear projects in the coastal areas would be restarted this year. So far over 30 coastal reactors and a near equal number of inland reactors have been planned, and over 80 reactors have been proposed (Figure 1). Management of spent nuclear fuel is a significant sociotechnical challenge that has not been fully resolved even in the developed countries with over half a century’s experience of nuclear power. After working in reactors for 3−7 years, the fuel rods are no longer efficient at generating electricity due to the accumulation of fission products, even only∼3% of their uranium has been used up. The spent nuclear fuel contains the unconverted uranium (95−96%), plutonium (1%), other actinides (0.1%), and the fission products (3−4%). The shortlived fission products (e.g., I and Ba) are the main sources of the high short-term radioactivity, and the highly radioactive spent fuel rods, after beingmoved out of reactors, are usually cooled and shielded in water-filled basins for several years or longer. Once they are thermally cool enough and less radioactive, they can be reprocessed ormoved todry-storage facilities. Decay of the fission products with medium half-lives (Cs and Sr) accounts for most of the radioactivity over the next several hundred years, while the actinides are primarily responsible for the long-term radioactivity (10−10 years). In general, the operation of a large (1 GW) nuclear reactor, with a typical lifespan of 60 years, produces 25−30 tonnes of spent fuel annually. Even based on a rather conservative estimation, China is expected to accumulate over 12,000 tonnes of spent fuel by 2020. Development of nuclear fuel reprocessing is still at the relatively early stage in China. Through recovering the unconverted uranium and plutonium from the spent fuel rods, reprocessing substantially reduces the waste’s volume (>90%) and long-term radioactivity. As the remaining waste is primarily composed of shortand medium-lived fission products, it takes hundreds of years for the radioactivity to decrease to safe levels. A pilot-scale plant has completed hot commissioning in 2010, indicating a major breakthrough of reprocessing technology in China. There are plans for two commercial reprocessing plants with capacities of 400 and 800−1000 tonnes/year based on the indigenous technology and/or the proven French technology by 2020 or later, but no construction has broken ground yet due to concerns of economics, safety, and technological maturity.