Why is it that the nuclear waste stored in the Yucca mountain can't be used to generate more energy (by heat)?

Because nuclear waste is often quite hot, couldn't it also be used to heat water, create steam, and power a turbine, similar to a nuclear reactor?

Why is it that the nuclear waste stored in the Yucca mountain can't be used to generate more energy (by heat)?
It is not worth it, to do so the government would have to pay (a lot) to specially trained thermodynamic physicists who monitor the system, probably resulting in a net loss for the government. Your idea does make sense though, I just think it is too risky and expensive.





Edit: I agree partially with what this person below me says, but in regards to the original question from a thermally efficient point of view, the 'reprocessing' does not generate heat that boils a gas/vapor cycles which could power a turbine. Reprocessing requires more power input in an attempt to refine the radioactive material into usable materials, such as weapons-grade stuff. So the heat could be harnessed from the waste to say, supply a water boiler with a heat input and run a perfectly stable cycle (Rankine possibly), but it's just not worth it.
Reply:It could be. Sixty times over. It's called "fuel reprocessing"





http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_rep...





and extracts the useful uranium and plutonium that is left in the fuel after it had to be removed from the reactor.





There are two slight problems:





1) Reprocessing can be used to make weapons-grade plutonium and there is a proliferation risk.





2) The uranium mine lobby has Washington in their grip and does not want reprocessing because it would virtually eliminate their business.





Whatever else you hear about this topic or make up yourself is nonsense. That we don't reprocess is a purely political issue. And that we need Yucca mountain in the first place is the consequence of these misguided policies and has nothing to do with physics or technology.

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