The reason why power companies do not invest in reprocessing and consume fresh fissile material is because by federal law bans it. Remember Jimmy Carter's Non-proliferation deal? Yeah.
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N...:
"In October 1976,[8] concern of nuclear weapons proliferation (especially after India demonstrated nuclear weapons capabilities using reprocessing technology) led President Gerald Ford to issue a Presidential directive to indefinitely suspend the commercial reprocessing and recycling of plutonium in the U.S. On 7 April 1977, President Jimmy Carter banned the reprocessing of commercial reactor spent nuclear fuel. ...
President Reagan lifted the ban in 1981, but did not provide the substantial subsidy that would have been necessary to start up commercial reprocessing."
"In March 1999, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) reversed its policy and signed a contract with a consortium of Duke Energy, COGEMA, and Stone & Webster (DCS) to design and operate a mixed oxide (MOX) fuel fabrication facility. ... the government has yet to find a single customer, despite offers of lucrative subsidies."
It's nothing to do with the ban on reprocessing that was only in place from 1977 to 1981, and everything to do with reprocessing being completely uneconomical. If we're going to reprocess, the government has to pay for it, as companies won't, but there are no technical or legislative barriers to doing so, as multiple other countries that are already reprocessing their waste demonstrate.