Their economic competitiveness thus depends on keeping construction to schedule so that capital costs do not blow out, and then operating them at reasonably high capacity over many years. By way of contrast, gas-fired power plants are very cheap and quick to build, but relatively very expensive to operate due to the cost of their fuel. With rising gas prices, and due to the high cost of moving coal long distances, nuclear plants are generally competitive with both gas and coal in most parts of the world, and becoming more so. Link to information paper on economics Waste Management. Handling and storing them safely is quite straightforward, they simply need to be shielded from human exposure, and cooled.
Shielding can be by concrete, steel or other dense material, cooling by air or water.
For instance, when spent fuel is removed from a typical reactor, it is done under water and the spent fuel is transferred to a large storage pool where the fuel may remain for up to 50 years. About 25 kg of spent fuel arises each year in generating enough electricity for about 1000 people in the western world. Other radioactive wastes also arise from the nuclear fuel cycle, these have greater volume but are more easily handled and disposed of. One characteristic of all radioactive wastes which distinguishes them from other industrial wastes is that their radioactivity progressively decays and diminishes. For instance, after 40 years, the spent fuel removed from a reactor has only one thousandth of its initial radioactivity remaining, making it very much easier to handle and dispose of.