How is used nuclear fuel stored today?

Used fuel is handled with impressive care: first cooled in deep water pools that also shield the radiation, then sealed into dry casks — massive passive steel-and-concrete containers that need no power and no moving parts and sit safely for decades. The track record is excellent, and studies (including of Fukushima's spent-fuel pools) repeatedly found the storage more robust than critics claimed.

The only real debate, hence the contested label, is how long interim storage should serve before a permanent repository or recycling program. That's a policy choice, not a safety problem — the storage itself is one of nuclear's quiet success stories.