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I wonder if a reactor could be designed so that as fuel is spent, the rods are placed closer together, or perhaps a design where new rods are added on the outside, while aging rods are moved closer to the center over time, thereby maintaining the same power output but extracting more of the fissile material?
I'd never design something that utilizes only 5% of the available fuel.
Considering our power plants are based on 60s technology, it seems likely there is a lot of potential for making fission plants more cost effective and safe. There would be an initial outlay of engineering costs associated, but once that's done, the plans could be applied to any number of generators, amortizing the development costs.
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