Now that greenhouse gases are the pollutants to fear, nuclear power may be making a comeback; British Petroleum's failings in Prudhoe Bay, revealed last week, only enhance the attractiveness of alternatives to oil. But as the nation rushes back to the future by embracing atomic energy, the industry and government have to solve one little problem left over from the past: how to deal with nuclear waste.

The notion that "politics stops at the water's edge" hasn't prevailed for much of U.S. history, but the current level of foreign-policy partisanship is dangerous to national security.