The Thorp nuclear fuel reprocessing plant at Sellafield, Cumbria, in the U.K. has been closed. No more spent nuclear fuel will be reprocessed there. Now the plant will undergo decommissioning which will require decades and billions of dollars. In order to successfully and safely dismantle and decontaminate the plant, it will be necessary to develop some new technology.
The three major nuclear armed powers are the U.S., Russia and China. While the U.S. and the Soviet Union built up huge stockpiles of nuclear warheads which were then reduced by disarmament treaties to a few thousand warheads each, China only has a few hundred warheads. They have a policy of not being the first to use nuclear weapons in a war.
NASA is considering selling seats on the launch vehicles that will be used to ferry passengers to the International Space Station (ISS). NASA would like to have additional sources of funding beyond that provided by the U.S. government for government missions.