ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) -- The Nuclear Regulatory Commission issued its first license for a major commercial nuclear facility in 30 years Friday, allowing an international consortium to build what would be the nation's first private fuel source for commercial nuclear power plants.

Critics argued that disposal costs could leave New Mexico stuck with the project's nuclear waste. But the board ruled May 31 that uncertainties over waste disposal costs are irrelevant; the agreement with New Mexico calls for hundreds of millions of dollars to be set aside for waste disposal.

The plant would generate a form of waste that no U.S. disposal site can handle, and no U.S. processing facility exists that can convert the waste into lower-level radioactive material. The plant could run at full capacity for eight to 10 years before running out of onsite space for the material. LES has an agreement with a French company to build such a plant in this country, but no site has been selected and no license has been issued.

How about if we bury it in Crawford, Texas?

The article also underscores for me the death of education and opportunity here. We have not invested in technology ("The plant would generate a form of waste that no U.S. disposal site can handle....") and rely on foreigners to provide answers for us. How long before foreign interests have such a hold on our infrastructure and services that they will have the power to insert their own interests into our national policies? I suspect that time is already here, given the fact that oil corporations have established our national energy policy. Today it is American corporations calling the shots and setting the course of our lives. Tomorrow it will be corporate interests in China or India or Saudi Arabia.