It’s natural that the nuclear crisis in Japan is causing people to rethink nuclear power. Frankly, it would be crazy if it didn’t. But the problem with energy choices in general is that it’s actually pretty hard to  change your mind once you’ve chosen a direction.  Nuclear power proves the point.

For most of the commentators, and most of the public, the debate spurred by the Japanese crisis is over whether we should use nuclear power at all, and what can be done to insure that the  reactors themselves are safe.

Yet a crucial element in the crisis at Fukushima Daichi is that it’s  the nuclear waste –the storage containers of spent fuel rods–that’s the source of much of the