I’d be interested in the economics of building an artificial hydroelectric storage facility over those of building and running a mine for storing nuclear waste.

I think that would be pretty one-sided. You need very few nuclear waste storage sites because the volumne if waste is very low.

On the other hand you need a lot of hydroelectric storage facilities. And without any natural elevated reservoir, I really don’t see how it would be viable at all.

Germany is not the only country that’s having problems with permanent waste storage. Most countries have not even started dealing with this issue and are still using interim storage solutions.

It seems to be the country with the most drama around it, though. The interim solutions are good enough for now.