The chief hang-up is political: the need to scrap a federal mandate that nuclear waste stowed anywhere must be retrievable for 100 years in case anything goes awry.
We really do not know how much is down there, we do not know which portion of whatever is down there is retrievable and we do not know the cost of doing so.
David Eich, founder of Armen Computing, which offers a software solution for active traders to track basis called Tradelog, says it would be "a nightmare" if brokers were required to report old basis information, which they may not have in any form, let alone an easily retrievable or accurate one.