The news coming out of Japan is ugly and scary in regard to nuclear power. I'm willing to give on the arguement that that siting would address much of what's gone wrong in Japan. In this nation it isn't all that difficult to avoid tsunamis. It isn't exactly easy to stay away from fault lines and some of the quiet ones pack a real wallop when they do let loose. It does seem that the problems in Japan are due to flooding rather than shaking and that much is reassuring - to an extent.
The issue of safety is still real, one of the real expenses of a nuke plant is just that - not the actually very expensive nature of getting power that way. Take out safety issues and it still is expensive. Since the cost of failure is so high safety simply can't be taken out.
Waste is a lot bigger issue than just the question of what to do with the expended fuel rods, everything that has had anything to do with those rods becomes waste that has to be disposed of in a real serious manner. It sure isn't a case of just digging a hole and dropping the stuff into it.
Even with the threat of radioactive clouds removed; I don't see how nuclear power is a good or important part of our power sources.
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