The nuclear crisis in Japan has turned attention to enormous amounts of radioactive waste accumulated at reactors throughout the United States.

State-by-state numbers obtained by the Associated Press reveal that the United States has 71,862 tons of the waste and no permanent place to store it all.

Nuclear waste storage plans at Yucca Mountain in Nevada have been abandoned. Even if it were approved as a storage site, the United States already has more waste than would fit in that location.

The majority of nuclear waste in the United States sits in water-filled cooling pools like those at the hobbled Fukushima Daiichi facility in Japan. The pools are outside the confines of concrete and steel barriers meant to guard the escape of radioactive gases.

Experts estimate the pools contain four times the amount of spent fuel than they were designed to handle.

The remainder of the spent fuel is in dry cask storage units, which are expected to last about 100 years before they need to be moved to a permanent storage facility.

The United States has 104 operating nuclear reactors in 31 states. Fifteen permanently shut reactors contain spent fuel.

Despite his decision to stall the creation of a nuclear storage facility at Yucca, President Obama has supported the expansion of nuclear power. To investigate the problem of long-term storage, Obama created a commission last year. Their initial findings are expected this summer, and a final plan is expected in January.

"They are 13 years late," said Terry Pickens, director of nuclear policy at Xcel Energy Inc. "We would like them to get done with what they said they would get done" (Fahey/Henry, AP/San Francisco Chronicle, March 22). -- PK