If you look at the designs for some more recent scientific reactors like the integral fast reactor [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integral_Fast_Reactor] the end of the decay series isn't radioactive for long (~400 years). These reactors can also reuse the radioactive waste we already have with a little processing. Radioactive waste from current reactors only needs to be contained for around 10,000 years.

I've seen this a couple times, mostly right after It loads a part of the game, but it isnt that annoying. The biggest problem I have with halflife 2 is that it takes close to 13 minuites to actually load the game...