Faced with the mounting evidence of the need to replace conventional fossil fuel sources with low carbon alternatives, the international community is in search for sustainable energy solutions (IEA, 2014). Nuclear energy has the potential to play a role in this much-needed low-carbon energy economy of the future, but its recent history indicates that it has been hampered by stagnation and uncertainty (Midttun & Witoszek, 2015). One of the main reasons for this is that there are limited options for managing spent fuel, i.e. materials that have been irradiated in a nuclear reactor. Spent nuclear fuel reprocessing is an option for utilizing rather than merely burying or otherwise storing nuclear waste through direct disposal. The reuse of valuable heavy elements – uranium and plutonium – from spent fuel rods provides a way to close the nuclear energy cycle, which is critical to the sustainability of the industry. However, reprocessing is highly contentious in terms of its economic, environmental and social-political impacts due to technological and economic limitations of current reprocessing methods. Ultimately, this investigation answers the question: Should spent nuclear fuel (SNF) reprocessing be more widely integrated as part of nuclear waste management practices? This investigation concludes that conventional reprocessing methods do not address the challenges it purports to resolve to an extent that would justify a call for further implementation in the world’s nuclear facilities; however, as a general activity and range of technologies, reprocessing is essential to the development of a closed, and therefore sustainable, nuclear energy system. The final recommendation is to implement advanced reprocessing methods into waste management practices as part of a wider effort in attaining an advanced and sustainable nuclear fuel cycle.