Nuclear energy is making a comeback. In Northeast Asia, nuclear power has long been a staple of national energy policy. But the rest of the world has suffered from a nuclear allergy mostly as the result of the fear of environmental disasters, such as the 1986 Chernobyl accident. Today, the twin specters of rising oil prices and global warming have prompted a rethinking of the nuclear-energy option.
All countries contemplating nuclear energy, like those that have already embraced it, must find a way to deal with the waste that nuclear power generates. This is a particularly vexing problem since such waste remains radioactive for tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of years. Communities are usually reluctant to accept nuclear-power plants, but that resistance is greatly magnified when it comes to storing a plant's waste.
A new U.S.-Russia nuclear cooperation agreement in which Russia would store much of the world's nuclear waste offers the first real solution to this problem. This is an initiative Japan can and should support. A central waste repository makes a great deal of sense -- if it is safe and secure.