Oh, look, I’m back from my mini-vacation. Did you miss me? I missed you. I also missed the news story from Thursday stating that President Obama has cut most of the funding for the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste facility in the new budget.

The New York Times reports that though this was one of Obama’s campaign promises, it’s not going to be so cut and dry to have this happen.

The decision could cost the federal government additional billions in payments to the utility industry, and if it holds up, it would mean that most of the $10.4 billion spent since 1983 to find a place to put nuclear waste was wasted. A final decision to abandon the repository would leave the nation with no solution to a problem it has struggled with for half a century.

Also, it will probably cost “tens of billions of dollars” to settle lawsuits with utilities that now have to deal with the nuclear waste the government was going to take off their hands. As well, Congress has to figure what, exactly, to do with all this nuclear stuff, and if there’s another place the government can store it.

Of course, this also is a big blow to the nuclear power industry, which had been hoping to build new reactors as the country tries to get away from fossil fuels. So, where does that leave us? Well, we’re not too sure. But to learn more about what the future of energy could be, takepart to learn how nuclear power works.