There's already a reactor that can do this (CANDU reactor), and has been operational for decades, no research required. That there is little new investment in building them tells me that no one really cares about reducing the amount of nuclear waste, and that it's all very political.
Yep. Ontario's power reactors can (and have!) run on plain uranium, partially depleted uranium "waste" from American power reactors, and my favourite: a mix of depleted uranium and ex-Soviet warhead plutonium [1]. A thorium breeding cycle is also possible, in theory with CANDU and it's actually being done with India's heavy water pressurized reactors using thorium, which are an indirect derivative.
