It's yet another example of the brilliance of the American public when it comes to power. Shut down the nuclear plants! (spin up coal plants instead). Block Yucca Mountain! (pile up spent fuel in short-term storage instead). So on and so forth.
It's yet another example of the brilliance of the American politicians when it comes to power.
Fixed that for you. Coal plants aren't doing so well, either. President Obama has stated many times a major policy goal is to destroy the coal industry - lack of viable alternative not mattering.
Regarding storing spent fuel only in temporary ways, that's just a sad artifact of neither side being able to agree on any long term solution, so no real long term solution gets implemented, and the can gets kicked down the road. It's lunacy not to face reality.
