> why was there this idea that burying waste now was a good idea? I've already answered that: nobody actually thought it was a good idea. It was imposed as a p

> why was there this idea that burying waste now was a good idea? I've already answered that: nobody actually thought it was a good idea. It was imposed as a policy because the actual (though of course not publicly admitted) purpose of the policy was to kill nuclear power by imposing unreasonable requirements on it. (It's possible, I suppose, that the Cold War rationale you give played a role, but I don't think it's very likely; that objective could have been met without requiring anything like 100,000 year storage.)