This haphazard approach makes no sense from the standpoint of safety or security. On the contrary, it creates unnecessary risk of environmental disasters and terrorist attacks — unlike the formidably impregnable Yucca Mountain. It has also wasted huge sums of money, because the federal government has had to pay those utilities that have been forced to store the spent fuel — a tab expected to approach $25 billion. And it stands in the way of expanding nuclear power, which ought to be a priority today as a method of generating electricity without producing greenhouse gases.