Leave it to Washington bureaucrats to look at the momentum building toward the construction of more nuclear power plants and see only one solution — doubling the size of the proposed repository at Nevada's Yucca Mountain.

They might as well propose the construction of a perpetual-motion machine.

In truth, the only thing in the world that seems to generate its own perpetual motion is the political debate over Yucca Mountain, which already is nearly a decade past its scheduled opening date. The projected price tag recently shot up to $77 billion. That's real money, even for the U.S. government, and especially during a time of war.

Oh yes, and that fellow from Nevada, Harry Reid, remains the Senate majority leader, and he hates the idea. That makes final congressional approval of Yucca about as likely as seeing a unicorn leap through the halls on Capitol Hill. Even in this Halloween season, no one will be able to conjure up that kind of trick, regardless of the treat.

The answer, of course, is for Congress to provide some sort of incentive toward the reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel rods. Only then will nuclear power, already the safest and cleanest of all viable energy sources, be embraceable. The Yucca option has so many downsides, from the need to transport highly radioactive waste nationwide to prohibitive costs and a never-ending need for more space, that it isn't likely ever to open for business; nor should it.

The momentum toward nuclear energy is unmistakable. At the moment, it is felt most in China, India and Russia, where new plants are being considered. Already, the price of uranium has soared to levels approaching those of the mid-1970s. Here in Utah, old claims are being reopened. Uranium mines once again hold the promise of making a few people quite rich.

Despite the cries of environmentalists, a lot of people realize that nuclear power is a way to generate a great deal of affordable energy without contributing to global warming. Other clean alternatives, such as solar or wind-generated power, have not yet developed to the point where they are viable.

But if the spent fuel rods generated by nuclear plants were reprocessed, the amount of waste requiring long-term storage would be greatly reduced. Likewise the amount of energy generated by endless debates in Washington over whether to spend billions on Yucca Mountain.