If you are familiar with nuclear power, then you should be aware of vitrification. You are aware of that, right? Vitrification is a process often used to refine nuclear waste for ultimate disposal. There are a host of other decontamination methods, and new ones are being tested everyday. We have desolate and isolated places in America, where all the nuclear waste ever produced in world history, could be stored. This is not a problem.
As for the expense, it's not very expensive at all, that is the major attraction to nuclear power. If it were something that cost more to do than it was worth, why in the hell would anyone want to do it? Just so we can play with nuclear materials? The fact of the matter is, it's the cheapest way to produce electric power, nothing else even comes close.
What is happening in Japan, would never apply here, we generally don't build nuclear power plants on two major fault lines, on islands out in the ocean, it's not something we have to do like Japan. See, they had no other option, that's what they have... an island in the ocean, on the convergence of two fault lines. But in the great vast United States, we have many places which have never recorded any kind of significant seismic activity, nor ever had to deal with a tsunami. So what happened in Japan, could just not ever realistically happen here. And they already know what the worst case scenario is in Japan, they bury the core in concrete and decontaminate the area. For about the next 40 years, no one will be able to live in the vicinity of the reactor, and that's about it. Yes, some people will probably die as a result... but how many people died as a result of mining coal last year? From a safety standpoint, even given the terrible tragedy in Japan, nuclear power is still the safest form of energy production.
