For longer than Barack Obama has been alive, the United States has been a country without a formal plan to deal with long-term nuclear waste. Some nations, like Spain, bury it underground. Others, like France, reprocess some used fuel to suck the maximum amount of juice from it. But America, well, simply stalls.

There are costs to that stalling. A government panel appointed by Energy Secretary Steven Chu released a report Monday taking the United States’s lackadaisical attitude to task. “Put simply, this nation’s failure to come to grips with the nuclear waste issue has already proved damaging and costly,” wrote the panel, which was led by Lee Hamilton, a former Democratic congressman, and Brent Scowcroft, a national security adviser to two Republican presidents.

The problem is diverse and robust. Rather than store all nuclear waste in a single, highly protected location, America’s current policy simply bides time by housing the radioactive byproducts of nuclear fission at each of the country’s 104 operating plants. While many are secure, the system has holes. A Newsweek report in late 2010 highlighted safety lapses at some nuclear plants—8 percent of plants holding high-level waste failed security tests.

The report, long awaited by the nuclear industry as the government’s most definitive blueprint for handling waste, made several recommendations, such as creating a new government institution solely responsible for nuclear waste management.

More...