"Isn't there a major concern for the waste materials that are generated from running a nuclear power plant? I'm all for clean energy, but I seem to remember a show that was all about the long term storage issues invloved with spent fuel (?) from the plants"

Nah, that's what they use to irradiate the food!  Problem solved.

I have watched a lot of NOVA/SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN shows dealing with the nuclear waste issue.
I like to think that as we commit to SOME kind of nuclear energy program that the incentive(financially/ environmentally) will drive a answer to the problem of getting rid of the spent fuel rods?
I saw plans to "sling" the waste into orbit and then into the sun.
The wildest one was using some kind of microbe type thing to EAT the waste and somehow neutralize it?
Point is when there's a market for something then new technologies spring forth to improve or safe guard it.
Comparing the technology of today in the nuclear energy field is like comparing silicon chips to transistors.
Jane Fonda in The China Syndrome, did more to set back nuclear power than any REAL accident or terrorist strike
I don't know what was worse, her and the Leftist Hollywood establishment sensationalizing and fear mongering nuclear power or her visiting Hanoi during the 60's and posing for pictures with the enemy

I think $$ will cause most people to consider anything.

Hey you found my former employer.  Hanford is a fast flux reactor, and their waste is a little more onerous in the types of isotopes produced than the vanilla type of reactor found in most power generating facilites. The dirty little secret is that Hanford was a test site for a new generation of reactor that used a very different fuel cycle from those of your typical reacotrs owned by utilities.  I designed parts of that project and the original name was the Hanford Fast Flux Test Facility. People forget that nuclear fuel is recycled and very little of the original fuel goes to waste.  Vitrification has proven to work and is used in other industrial nations in the world.  The greatest generator of nuclear waste in this country is medicine and the isotopes of Cobalt are some of the most dangerous. By the way Cobalt isotopes used in medicine are transported without any restriction in all communities of the US. You may be driving down the highway and its in the truck next to you. Any time you go near a hospital you are mere feet from radioactive materials.

Interestingly enough one of the issues on the tele here in London is the new Nuclear plants being built in several countries.  They have recognized that the energy produced by sun, wind, waves is not going to be enough to fuel the growth and the nuclear option is better than fossil fuels. 
I was suprised, however, it will be many years before any new plants are on line.