The work Casten and REM are doing is important (and there are others), use of generated heat is a useful step, but experts have told me that much more is needed to economically handle the exhaust from coal-fired electrical power generation plants. Sulfur and other products in the gases corrode the equipment. Separation and re-use of these materials needs a market that would take time to develop.

I remember the mountains of sulfur left over from the refining of sulfur-rich crude oil in Alberta. It took a long time for the sulfur to be absorbed into the chemical industry, although this did finally happen.

Direction from government is needed to get diverse industries to cooperate in finding solutions to some of these problems.

China is building coal-fired electrical power plants at a great rate. One can hope that, with centralized government to a much greater extent than is possible in our 'democracy,' China might become involved in developing new methods.

Nuclear waste can be reprocessed on a laboratory scale, but no one has come up with a large-scale method that is economically viable.
It would be cheaper to fire it off to the moon (OK, I know it would poison the man in the moon).