What to do with the waste?

Obama indicated that he is functionally getting rid of funding for storing nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain in Nevada, as reported by Bloomberg.  Harry Reid and Steven Chu both applaud the decision but it raises a couple of interesting points. First, the Wall Street Journal blog explains the renewed problem of waste (something Yucca would have only partially solved) may complicate the "nuclear renaissance" that some have preached in the past few years.  Confidence in the environmentally benign nature of nuclear power will be important to securing the needed public support and private investment.  The greatly reduced price of oil in combination with the global economic downturn also can't help the nuclear transition. Second, this could be a learning lesson for future moves from the Obama administration.   With Gates emphasizing the importance of military spending, nuclear weapons are high on the list of possible areas for cost savings according to many people (see Joe Cirincione's op-ed or Carnegie's 2009 accountability study (PDF)).  In the same way that Obama easily let go of a program at Yucca that had $9 billion and 20 years of work behind it, other nuclear programs that have a legacy and may even support a number of jobs could fall by the wayside.