The Big Picture

In considering the problem of nuclear waste, there are too many technical details for me to debate with the necessary detail.  It is really an array of bad choices with large unknown factors.  We do know that Germany, a technirally very well respected player, failed miserably, and very expensively at a permanent storage facility.  We also know that a US facility for less critical waste failed because the operators had gotten used to calling bentonite clay "Kitty Litter" and then changed to a non-clay version.  Nobody has any particular success to show the way for us to follow.

So, rather than make my usual suggestions from an engineering perspective, I'd like to direct your attention to the entities you seek to regulate.  A corporation exists to make money any way it can.  It has no qualms about lying or breaking the law if it can probably come out ahead on the deal. With an operating power reactor, the owners have managed to charge power customers very high rates.  Without that income, the best opportunity for income is to divert some bomb-grade material, so that possibility should be anticipated and stymied at every turn.  Their other financial concern, of course, is to minimize liability, and to that end they keep trying to sell us "permanent" resolutions, which are impossible.  Loose neutrons are like a deadly stain that will always spread, but can, with regular maintenance, be slowed down.  The money to pay for that in perpetuity, without earning interest, should be retreived from anyone who has received profits from nuclear ventures.