Much of the future growth is predicted in developing nations without the centralized grids of power lines to accommodate big nuclear plants. Fear of spreading material and know-how for nuclear weapons is also braking nuclear energy in other lands. In a final indignity, even the costs of walking away from nuclear power have soared. Owners of San Onofre 1, which closed in 1992, decided this year to take it out of cold storage and dismantle it quickly, before it gets even more costly. Around the country, more than 42,000 tons of potentially lethal radioactive waste fuel await federal pickup under a legally binding government promise.
Government officials say it is safest to store centrally under federal control.
It is now kept mostly in cooling pools not designed for permanent safekeeping. Nev. But it won't be ready until 2010 at the earliest, according to government officials. Sen. Frank Murkowski, R-Alaska, chairman of the Senate Energy Committee, says the government should set up a temporary waste site at Yucca to relieve utilities. But that idea has met strong opposition, too. Many analysts say the nation could weather a slow death of nuclear power fairly well.