When the govt tried to bail out Bear Stearns, the market reacted adversely causing a run which only exacerbated the problem. I think they were trying to avoid that happening again.

Sci Am had an interesting article re nuclear waste last month. Apparently, only 5% of the energy of nuclear fuel is consumed with current methods.

Using fast reactors and some newly developed processing techniques you can up that percentage to 95%.

The waste from these reactors is much less harzardous since its energy content is almost all consumed. Not a physicist so I'll leave out the details...

Additionally, all the nuclear "waste" we have sitting around, right now, could power these reactors for literally decades. No mining (or storage) necessary.