Yucca Mtn

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font><div><div class="header-list-style" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; color: rgb(49, 49, 49); font-family: Cabin, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><h2 class="entry-title grid-title" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-size: 17px; font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; letter-spacing: 1px;"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/01/officials-are-outraged-after-trump-administration-secretly-ships-weapons-grade-plutonium-to-an-unwitting-state-report/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(136, 136, 136); transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; font-size: 18px; letter-spacing: 0px;">Officials are outraged after Trump administration secretly ships ‘weapons-grade plutonium’ to an unwitting state</a></h2><div class="grid-post-box-meta" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 12px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; font-size: 12px;"><span class="author-italic author vcard" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(136, 136, 136); font-size: inherit;">by&nbsp;<a class="url fn n" href="https://www.alternet.org/author/cody-fenwick/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(49, 49, 49); transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; font-size: inherit;">Cody Fenwick</a></span>&nbsp;<span style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(136, 136, 136); font-size: inherit;">January 30, 2019</span></div></div><div class="item-content entry-content" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 18px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(49, 49, 49); font-family: Cabin, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;">Nevada officials fumed Wednesday after the Trump administration revealed in a court filing that it has secretly shipped radioactive plutonium to the state despite local objections, the Nevada Independent reported.…</p></div></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">=
</font><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">LAT 12/18</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><div data-type="text" class="card collection-item" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 19px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: " helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px"><div class=" card-content " style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 26px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 18px; padding: 24px 24px 0px;"><p data-page="1" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px;">As the final days of the 115th Congress tick down in a blur of last-minute negotiations over government spending and President Trump’s border wall, time is running out for lawmakers to restart a long-stalled effort to build a permanent nuclear waste repository. They should make it a top priority.</p></div></div><div data-type="text" class="card collection-item" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 19px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: " helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px"><div class=" card-content " style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 26px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 18px; padding: 24px 24px 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px;">At issue is the proposed repository in remote Yucca Mountain, Nev., adjacent to a Cold War-era nuclear weapons test site. About a decade ago, the federal government stopped the licensing process for the site when Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), a powerful longtime opponent, persuaded President Obama to cut its funding. In the intervening years, nuclear waste has continued to pile up (not just metaphorically) at more than 60 active plants around the country.</p></div></div><div data-type="text" class="card collection-item" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 19px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: " helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px"><div class=" card-content " style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 26px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 18px; padding: 24px 24px 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px;"><b>Spent fuel rods and other reactor waste also remain stored at about 30 inactive plants, including the San Onofre</b> Nuclear Generating Station south of San Clemente, which permanently shut down its reactors in 2013. Southern California Edison and the other co-owners of the shuttered plant have had no choice but to cool spent fuel rods on site, pack them into steel-lined concrete containers at the edge of the Pacific Ocean and then pray that no catastrophic events or serious equipment failures occur before a permanent home is found.</p></div></div><div data-type="text" class="card collection-item" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 19px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: " helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px"><div class=" card-content " style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 26px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 18px; padding: 24px 24px 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px;">It’s an untenable situation, and Congress should be moving heaven and Earth to fund a long-term nuclear storage site — and interim sites while the permanent one is made ready — before the session ends next week and all the hard work of the past year is scrapped.</p></div></div><div data-type="text" class="card collection-item" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 19px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: " helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px"><div class=" card-content " style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 26px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 18px; padding: 24px 24px 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Both the House and the Senate agree on developing interim nuclear storage sites — waste way stations, if you will — that could be ready to accept spent fuel rods as soon as the 2020s. Two private companies in Texas and New Mexico are working on opening temporary waste facilities, and the governors of those states support them because of the jobs they would produce.</span></p></div></div><div data-type="text" class="card collection-item" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 19px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: " helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px"><div class=" card-content " style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 26px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 18px; padding: 24px 24px 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The sticking point on Yucca Mountain, by contrast, is local opposition. Reid has retired, but Nevada’s current senators have made it clear they will never support a repository at Yucca Mountain, and they have the support of Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and other colleagues. Feinstein owes it to Californians to act in their interests first.</span></p></div></div><div data-type="text" class="card collection-item" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 19px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: " helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px"><div class=" card-content " style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 26px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 18px; padding: 24px 24px 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px;">It would be great if no state had to bear the responsibility for the toxic output of the nation’s nuclear power plants. But leaving highly radioactive waste scattered across the country at scores of nuclear plants poses far too much risk; Congress wisely decided more than 30 years ago to create a single national site for spent fuel rods and other reactor waste. And it chose Yucca Mountain because it is uniquely suited for the task, given its history, topography and empty surroundings. Since then $11 billion of about $35 billion paid by ratepayers for the purpose has been spent developing the remote Nevada site.</p></div></div><div data-type="text" class="card collection-item" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 19px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: " helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px"><div class=" card-content " style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 26px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 18px; padding: 24px 24px 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px;">If there was another reasonable option to safely store this toxic material for the millennia it will take to lose its lethality, then we’d be all for considering it. There is not, however, and giving up on Yucca Mountain now will set back the process by years, if not decades.</p></div></div><div data-type="text" class="card collection-item" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 19px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: " helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px"><div class=" card-content " style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 26px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 18px; padding: 24px 24px 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">And storing waste in a desolate, dry and stable site in the Sierras is considerably safer than stacking up canisters of spent rods on the beach in seismically sensitive, wildfire-prone Southern California in an era of rising sea levels. One accident at that spot could cause incalculable damage to the environment and to the major population centers to the north and south. And even with redundant safety measures, things can go wrong; accidents happen. Earlier this year workers at San Onofre found a loose bolt inside one of newly designed canisters being used to store radioactive materials. That one was fixed while it was still empty, but the plant had already filled other new canisters. There’s no way to know if those filled containers might be structurally unsound. We just have to hope there’s no reason to find out.</span></p></div></div><div data-type="text" class="card collection-item card-border-bottom card-border-bottom-thick card-border-bottom-dark" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); border-width: 4px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 19px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: " helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px"><div class=" card-content " style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 26px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 18px; padding: 24px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px;">If this Congress adjourns without resuming work on Yucca Mountain, then it may never happen. Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco), the presumptive incoming House speaker, has said she won’t support Yucca Mountain as long as Nevada’s leaders are opposed. The prospect of 30 more years of homeless radioactive waste decaying at decommissioned sites never intended for long-term storage is truly terrifying.</p></div></div></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="https://www.hcn.org/articles/is-yucca-mountain-back-from-the-dead">https://www.hcn.org/articles/is-yucca-mountain-back-from-the-dead</a></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" /><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>Is Yucca Mountain back from the dead?</b></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><div>The controversial, long-dormant project rears its head in Congress.</div><div>Rebecca Worby May 8, 2017&nbsp;</div><div>&nbsp;</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Yucca Mountain, the project to permanently store high-level nuclear waste underground in southern Nevada, has been considered dead since then-President Obama defunded it in 2012. But now, President Trump has moved to revive it. His 2018 budget blueprint includes $120 million to restart licensing and to provide interim waste storage elsewhere.</span></div><div>
</div><div>The Yucca Mountain plan has faced stiff opposition from Nevada residents, environmentalists and elected officials since 1987, when Congress identified the dry, remote ridge as the only location that would be studied for a national repository for high-level nuclear waste and spent nuclear fuel. The money allocated in Trump’s budget plan amounts to only a token gesture. <b>The Department of Energy estimated in 2008 that the project as a whole would require up to $96 billion to complete; it’s already cost taxpayers $15 billion.</b></div><div>
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</div><div>Yucca Mountain, about 90 miles from Las Vegas, was selected in 1987 as the only site to be considered for a national nuclear waste repository.</div><div>Department of Energy</div><div>
</div><div>On April 26, a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee held a hearing on a draft bill to restart the licensing process.<b> Subcommittee Chairman Rep. John Shimkus, (R-Illinois), who introduced the legislation, expressed confidence that the Department of Energy fully supports the bill</b>. <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Though no one from the department attended the hearing, Energy Secretary Rick Perry sent a letter to the chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce: “I believe establishing a geologic repository is the best long-term solution for isolating spent fuel and high-level waste,” Perry wrote, noting the importance of restarting licensing for Yucca “became even clearer” when he toured the site recently.&nbsp;</span></div><div>
</div><div><b>The waste now awaiting permanent storage at 121 sites has mounted to 79,000 tons — 9,000 tons above the planned limit for Yucca Mountain.</b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> Currently, the country’s sole permanent storage facility is New Mexico’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, which takes only defense-generated nuclear waste. It recently reopened after a fire and an unrelated radiological release led it to shut down in 2014.</span></div><div>
</div><div><b>Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval and all members of Nevada’s congressional delegation oppose the draft legislation.</b> In a letter to Shimkus before the hearing, Sandoval wrote that Nevada opposes the project “based on scientific, technical and legal merits,” and stated that the proposed bill “<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">usurps Nevada’s jurisdiction over the state’s water resources” and speeds up the licensing process, making it more difficult to mitigate potential public health and environmental risks. “No amount of monetary benefits can compensate for the coerced selection of an unsafe site,</span>” the letter concludes. <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The state has already filed more than 200 objections to the DOE’s application, all of which would have to be resolved — at a cost of up to $2 billion — before the project could go forward. Meanwhile, Nye County, where Yucca Mountain is located, is in favor of resuming licensing, with hopes that the project will lead to job creation and infrastructure improvements.</span></div><div>
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</div><div>The Department of Energy built an underground Exploratory Studies Facility to help determine Yucca’s suitability.</div><div>Nuclear Regulatory Commission]</div><div>
</div><div><b>Yucca’s opponents have cited a number of concerns about the project. Chief among them is the risk of transporting thousands of tons of radioactive waste long distances, including through the city of Las Vegas, which lies about 90 miles southeast of the site.</b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> Other potential risks include groundwater contamination and the corrosion it could cause as well as earthquake activity.</span></div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">When it comes to air and water permitting, the draft legislation would allow the federal government to override the state. This only heightens Nevada’s concerns, and it also goes against the 2012 recommendations of the Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future — formed at President Obama’s request — which emphasized a consent-based process including local, state and tribal government for waste management.</span> The bill prescribes consent-based siting for places that might host interim storage facilities, but Bob Halstead, executive director of the Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects, says that’s like saying, “We’re going to treat you fair, but look away while we screw Nevada over here.”</div><div>
</div><div>In recent weeks, Halstead says, “pro-Yucca forces in the nuclear industry, Congress, and the Trump administration have made it clear that they haven’t had any new ideas in 30 years;” instead, they’re dressing up an old idea. “They can limp along and pretend they’re making progress with $120 million to spend” during fiscal year 2018, he says. But the battle over Yucca is far from over — and Nevada plans to keep fighting back.</div></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
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</font><div><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yucca_Mountain_nuclear_waste_repository"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yucca_Mountain_nuclear_waste_repository</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;<b>Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Repository</b>, as designated by the&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_Waste_Policy_Act" title="Nuclear Waste Policy Act" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Nuclear Waste Policy Act</a>&nbsp;amendments of 1987, is to be a&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_geological_repository" title="Deep geological repository" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">deep geological repository</a>&nbsp;storage facility within&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yucca_Mountain" title="Yucca Mountain" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Yucca Mountain</a>&nbsp;for&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spent_nuclear_fuel" title="Spent nuclear fuel" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">spent nuclear fuel</a>&nbsp;and other&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-level_radioactive_waste" class="mw-redirect" title="High-level radioactive waste" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">high-level radioactive waste</a>&nbsp;in the United States. The site is located on federal land adjacent to the&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nevada_Test_Site" title="Nevada Test Site" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Nevada Test Site</a>&nbsp;in&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nye_County,Nevada" title="Nye County, Nevada" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Nye County, Nevada</a>, about 80&nbsp;mi (130&nbsp;km) northwest of the&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Las_Vegas_Valley" title="Las Vegas Valley" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Las Vegas Valley</a>.</font></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The project was approved in 2002 by the&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/107th_United_States_Congress" title="107th United States Congress" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">107th United States Congress</a>, but federal funding for the site ended in 2011 under the&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obama_Administration" class="mw-redirect" title="Obama Administration" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Obama Administration</a>&nbsp;via amendment to the&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continuing_resolution" title="Continuing resolution" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Department of Defense and Full-Year Continuing Appropriations Act</a>, passed on April 14, 2011.<sup id="cite_ref-2" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yucca_Mountain_nuclear_waste_repository#cite_note-2" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[2]</a></sup>&nbsp;The project has encountered many difficulties and was highly contested by the non-local public, the&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Shoshone" title="Western Shoshone" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Western Shoshone</a>&nbsp;peoples, and many politicians.<sup id="cite_ref-3" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yucca_Mountain_nuclear_waste_repository#cite_note-3" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[3]</a></sup>&nbsp;The project also faces strong state and regional opposition.<sup id="cite_ref-4" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yucca_Mountain_nuclear_waste_repository#cite_note-4" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[4]</a></sup>&nbsp;The&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Government_Accountability_Office" title="Government Accountability Office" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Government Accountability Office</a>&nbsp;stated that the closure was for political, not technical or safety reasons.<sup id="cite_ref-GAO_5-0" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yucca_Mountain_nuclear_waste_repository#cite_note-GAO-5" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[5]</a></sup></font></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">This leaves American&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_utility" title="Electric utility" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">utilities</a>&nbsp;and the United States government, which currently disposes of its&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transuranium_element" title="Transuranium element" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">transuranic</a>&nbsp;waste 2,150 feet (660&nbsp;m) below the surface at the&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waste_Isolation_Pilot_Plant" title="Waste Isolation Pilot Plant" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Waste Isolation Pilot Plant</a>&nbsp;in New Mexico,<sup id="cite_ref-6" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yucca_Mountain_nuclear_waste_repository#cite_note-6" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[6]</a></sup>&nbsp;without any designated long-term storage site for the high-level radioactive waste stored on site at various nuclear facilities around the country.</font></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Under&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/President_Barack_Obama" class="mw-redirect" title="President Barack Obama" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">President Barack Obama</a>&nbsp;the&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Department_of_Energy" title="United States Department of Energy" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">Department of Energy</a>&nbsp;(DOE) was reviewing options other than Yucca Mountain for a&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-level_radioactive_waste_management" title="High-level radioactive waste management" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">high-level waste repository</a>.</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> The&nbsp;</span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Ribbon_Commission_on_America%27s_Nuclear_Future" title="Blue Ribbon Commission on America's Nuclear Future" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none;">Blue Ribbon Commission on America's Nuclear Future</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">, established by the&nbsp;</span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Secretary_of_Energy" title="United States Secretary of Energy" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none;">Secretary of Energy</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">, released its final report in January 2012. It detailed an urgent need to find a site suitable for constructing a consolidated, geological repository, stating that any future facility should be developed by a new independent organization with direct access to the&nbsp;</span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_Waste_Fund" class="mw-redirect" title="Nuclear Waste Fund" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none;">Nuclear Waste Fund</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">, which is not subject to political and financial control as the&nbsp;</span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cabinet(government)" title="Cabinet (government)" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none;">Cabinet</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">-level Department of Energy is.</span><sup id="cite_ref-7" class="reference" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yucca_Mountain_nuclear_waste_repository#cite_note-7" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[7]</a></sup></font></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Under&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/President_Donald_Trump" class="mw-redirect" title="President Donald Trump" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">President Donald Trump</a>, the DOE has ceased deep borehole<sup id="cite_ref-8" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yucca_Mountain_nuclear_waste_repository#cite_note-8" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">[8]</a></sup>&nbsp;and other non-Yucca Mountain waste disposition research activities. For FY18, DOE had requested $120 million and the NRC $30 million<sup id="cite_ref-9" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yucca_Mountain_nuclear_waste_repository#cite_note-9" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">[9]</a></sup>&nbsp;from Congress to continue licensing activities for the Yucca Mountain Repository. For FY19, DOE has again requested $120 million but the NRC has increased their request to $47.7 million.<sup id="cite_ref-10" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yucca_Mountain_nuclear_waste_repository#cite_note-10" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">[10]</a></sup>&nbsp;Congress has decided to provide no funding for the remainder of FY18.</span><sup id="cite_ref-11" class="reference" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yucca_Mountain_nuclear_waste_repository#cite_note-11" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[11]</a></sup></font></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In the meantime, most&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_power_in_the_United_States" title="Nuclear power in the United States" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">nuclear power plants in the United States</a>&nbsp;have resorted to the indefinite on-site&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dry_cask_storage" title="Dry cask storage" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">dry cask storage</a>&nbsp;of waste in steel and concrete&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cask" class="mw-redirect" title="Cask" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">casks</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-nrc.gov_12-0" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yucca_Mountain_nuclear_waste_repository#cite_note-nrc.gov-12" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[12]</a></sup></font></p><div id="toc" class="toc" style="border: 1px solid rgb(162, 169, 177); background-color: rgb(248, 249, 250); padding: 7px; display: table; zoom: 1;"><input type="checkbox" role="button" id="toctogglecheckbox" class="toctogglecheckbox" style="direction: ltr; position: absolute; opacity: 0; display: none;" /><div class="toctitle" lang="en" dir="ltr" style="direction: ltr; text-align: center;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><ul style="list-style-type: none; margin: 0.3em 0px; padding: 0px; list-style-image: none;"><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-1" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yucca_Mountain_nuclear_waste_repository#Introduction" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">1</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">Introduction</span></font></a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-2" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yucca_Mountain_nuclear_waste_repository#The_facility" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">2</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">The facility</span></font></a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-3" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yucca_Mountain_nuclear_waste_repository#Opposition" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">3</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">Opposition</span></font></a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-4" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yucca_Mountain_nuclear_waste_repository#Radiation_standards" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">4</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">Radiation standards</span></font></a><ul style="list-style-type: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 2em; padding: 0px; list-style-image: none;"><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-5" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yucca_Mountain_nuclear_waste_repository#Original_standard" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">4.1</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">Original standard</span></font></a></li><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-6" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yucca_Mountain_nuclear_waste_repository#Inconsistent_standards" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">4.2</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">Inconsistent standards</span></font></a></li><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-7" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yucca_Mountain_nuclear_waste_repository#EPA's_rule" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">4.3</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">EPA's rule</span></font></a></li></ul></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-8" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yucca_Mountain_nuclear_waste_repository#Geology" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">5</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">Geology</span></font></a><ul style="list-style-type: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 2em; padding: 0px; list-style-image: none;"><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-9" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yucca_Mountain_nuclear_waste_repository#Earthquakes" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">5.1</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">Earthquakes</span></font></a></li></ul></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-10" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yucca_Mountain_nuclear_waste_repository#Transportation_of_waste" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">6</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">Transportation of waste</span></font></a><ul style="list-style-type: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 2em; padding: 0px; list-style-image: none;"><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-11" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yucca_Mountain_nuclear_waste_repository#Nevada_routes" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">6.1</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">Nevada routes</span></font></a></li><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-12" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yucca_Mountain_nuclear_waste_repository#Impacts" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">6.2</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">Impacts</span></font></a></li></ul></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-13" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yucca_Mountain_nuclear_waste_repository#Cultural_impact" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">7</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">Cultural impact</span></font></a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-14" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yucca_Mountain_nuclear_waste_repository#Delays_since_2009" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">8</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">Delays since 2009</span></font></a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-15" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yucca_Mountain_nuclear_waste_repository#See_also" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">9</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">See also</span></font></a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-16" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yucca_Mountain_nuclear_waste_repository#References" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">10</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">References</span></font></a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-17" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yucca_Mountain_nuclear_waste_repository#Further_reading" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">11</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">Further reading</span></font></a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-18" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yucca_Mountain_nuclear_waste_repository#External_links" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">12</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">External links</span></font></a></li></ul></div><h2 style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); font-weight: normal; margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(162, 169, 177); line-height: 1.3;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="mw-headline" id="Introduction">Introduction</span></font></h2><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spent_nuclear_fuel" title="Spent nuclear fuel" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Spent nuclear fuel</a>&nbsp;is the radioactive by-product of&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electricity_generation" title="Electricity generation" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">electricity generation</a>&nbsp;at commercial&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_power" title="Nuclear power" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">nuclear power</a>&nbsp;plants, and high-level&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radioactive_waste" title="Radioactive waste" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">radioactive waste</a>&nbsp;is the by-product from&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_reprocessing" title="Nuclear reprocessing" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">reprocessing</a>&nbsp;spent fuel to produce fissile material for nuclear weapons.<sup id="cite_ref-13" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yucca_Mountain_nuclear_waste_repository#cite_note-13" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[13]</a></sup>&nbsp;In 1982, the United States Congress established a national policy to solve the problem of nuclear waste disposal. This policy is a federal law called the&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_Waste_Policy_Act" title="Nuclear Waste Policy Act" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Nuclear Waste Policy Act</a>,<sup id="cite_ref-14" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yucca_Mountain_nuclear_waste_repository#cite_note-14" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[14]</a></sup>&nbsp;which made the DOE responsible for finding a site, building, and operating an underground disposal facility called a geologic repository. The recommendation to use a geologic repository dates back to 1957 when the&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_National_Academy_of_Sciences" class="mw-redirect" title="United States National Academy of Sciences" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">National Academy of Sciences</a>&nbsp;recommended that the best means of protecting the environment and public health and safety would be to dispose of the waste in rock deep underground.<sup id="cite_ref-15" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yucca_Mountain_nuclear_waste_repository#cite_note-15" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[15]</a></sup><sup class="noprint Inline-Template" style="line-height: 1; white-space: nowrap;">[<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citing_sources" title="Wikipedia:Citing sources" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><span title="This citation requires a reference to the specific page or range of pages in which the material appears. (December 2014)">page&nbsp;needed</span></a></i>]</sup></font></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The DOE began studying Yucca Mountain in 1978 </b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">to determine whether it would be suitable for the nation's first long-term geologic repository for over 70,000 metric tons (69,000 long tons; 77,000 short tons) (150 million pounds)</span><sup id="cite_ref-16" class="reference" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yucca_Mountain_nuclear_waste_repository#cite_note-16" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[16]</a></sup><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">&nbsp;of spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste as of 2015</span><sup class="noprint Inline-Template" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 1; white-space: nowrap;">[<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Manual_of_Style/Dates_and_numbers#Chronological_items" title="Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Dates and numbers" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><span title="The time period mentioned near this tag is ambiguous. (December 2014)">when?</span></a></i>]</sup><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">&nbsp;stored at 121 sites around the nation. An estimated 10,000 metric tons (9,800 long tons; 11,000 short tons) of the waste would be from America's military nuclear programs.</span><sup id="cite_ref-17" class="reference" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yucca_Mountain_nuclear_waste_repository#cite_note-17" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[17]</a></sup><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">&nbsp;On December 19, 1984, the DOE selected ten locations in six states for consideration as potential repository sites, based on data collected for nearly ten years. The ten sites were studied and results of these preliminary studies were reported in 1985. </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Based on these reports,&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan" title="Ronald Reagan" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">President Ronald Reagan</a>&nbsp;approved three sites for intensive scientific study</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> called site characterization. The three sites were&nbsp;</span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanford_Site" title="Hanford Site" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none;">Hanford, Washington</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">;&nbsp;</span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deaf_Smith_County,Texas" title="Deaf Smith County, Texas" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none;">Deaf Smith County, Texas</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">; and Yucca Mountain. In 1987, Congress amended the Nuclear Waste Policy Act and directed DOE to study only Yucca Mountain, which is located adjacent to the former nuclear test site. The Act provided that if during site characterization the Yucca Mountain location was found unsuitable, studies would be stopped immediately. This option expired when the site was actually recommended by the President. On July 23, 2002,&nbsp;</span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/POTUS" class="mw-redirect" title="POTUS" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none;">President</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">&nbsp;</span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_W.Bush" title="George W. Bush" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none;">George W. Bush</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">&nbsp;signed House Joint Resolution 87,</span><sup id="cite_ref-18" class="reference" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yucca_Mountain_nuclear_waste_repository#cite_note-18" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[18]</a></sup><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">&nbsp;(</span><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://legislink.org/us/pl-107-200" style="background: linear-gradient(transparent, transparent) right center no-repeat, url(" data:image="data:image" svg="svg" xml="xml" csvg="Csvg" width="%2212%22" height="%2212%22%3E" cpath="Cpath" fill="%22%23fff%22" stroke="%22%2336c%22" d="%22M9.995" h5.982v10.5h1.5z="h5.982V10.5H1.5z" e="E" h11v5.39l9.427="H11v5.39L9.427" l-1.31-1.31l5.393="l-1.31-1.31L5.393" l-2.69-2.688="l-2.69-2.688" l4.2="L4.2" z="z" l.022="l.022" l8.2="L8.2" l2.882-2.88-1.85-1.852z="l2.882-2.88-1.85-1.852z" c="C" text-decoration-line="text-decoration-line" none="none" padding-right="padding-right" px="px" xmlns="%22http://www.w3.org/2000/svg%22" xmlns:data="data">Pub.L. 107–200</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">) allowing the DOE to take the next step in establishing a safe repository in which to store the country's nuclear waste. </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The DOE was to begin accepting spent fuel at the Yucca Mountain Repository by January 31, 1998 but did not do so because of a series of delays due to legal challenges, concerns over how to transport nuclear waste to the facility, and political pressures resulting in underfunding of the construction.</span></font></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">On July 18, 2006 the DOE proposed March 31, 2017 as the date to open the facility and begin accepting waste based on full funding. On September 8, 2006 Ward (Edward) Sproat, a nuclear industry executive formerly of PECO energy in Pennsylvania, was nominated by President Bush to lead the Yucca Mountain Project. Following the </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">2006 mid-term Congressional elections, Democratic Nevada Senator&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Reid" title="Harry Reid" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">Harry Reid</a>, a longtime opponent of the repository, became the&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Senate_Majority_Leader" class="mw-redirect" title="Senate Majority Leader" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">Senate Majority Leader</a>, putting him in a position to greatly affect the future of the project. Reid has said that he would continue to work to block completion of the project, and is quoted as having said: "Yucca Mountain is dead. It'll never happen.</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">"</span><sup id="cite_ref-19" class="reference" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yucca_Mountain_nuclear_waste_repository#cite_note-19" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[19]</a></sup></font></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In the 2008 Omnibus Spending Bill, the Yucca Mountain Project's budget was reduced to $390 million. The project was able to reallocate resources and delay transportation expenditures to complete the License Application for submission on June 3, 2008</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">. During his 2008 presidential campaign,&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/President_of_the_United_States" title="President of the United States" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">President</a>&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barack_Obama" title="Barack Obama" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">Barack Obama</a>&nbsp;promised to abandon the Yucca Mountain project.<sup id="cite_ref-20" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yucca_Mountain_nuclear_waste_repository#cite_note-20" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">[20]</a></sup>&nbsp;As a result, Senator Reid moved the Nevada primary to help President Obama's campaign.<sup class="noprint Inline-Template Template-Fact" style="line-height: 1; white-space: nowrap;">[<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed" title="Wikipedia:Citation needed" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><span title="This claim needs references to reliable sources. (December 2014)">citation needed</span></a></i>]</sup>&nbsp;After his election, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission told President Obama he did not have the ability to do so.<sup id="cite_ref-Shuler_21-0" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yucca_Mountain_nuclear_waste_repository#cite_note-Shuler-21" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">[21]</a></sup>&nbsp;On April 23, 2009,&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lindsey_Graham" title="Lindsey Graham" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">Lindsey Graham</a>&nbsp;(R-South Carolina) and eight other senators introduced legislation to provide "rebates" from a $30 billion federally managed fund into which nuclear power plants had been paying, so as to refund all collected funds if the project was in fact cancelled by Congress.<sup id="cite_ref-22" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yucca_Mountain_nuclear_waste_repository#cite_note-22" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">[22]</a></sup></span></font></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In November 2013, in response to a lawsuit filed by the&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Association_of_Regulatory_Utility_Commissioners" title="National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners</a>&nbsp;and the&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_Energy_Institute" title="Nuclear Energy Institute" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">Nuclear Energy Institute</a>, the&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/US_court_of_appeals" class="mw-redirect" title="US court of appeals" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">US court of appeals</a>&nbsp;ruled that nuclear utilities may stop paying into the nuclear waste recovery fund </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">until either the DOE follows the Nuclear Waste Policy Act, which designates Yucca Mountain as the repository, or Congress changes the law.</span><sup id="cite_ref-23" class="reference" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yucca_Mountain_nuclear_waste_repository#cite_note-23" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[23]</a></sup><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">&nbsp;The fee ended May 16, 2014.</span></font></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Lacking an operating repository, the federal government initially paid utility companies somewhere between $300 and $500 million per year in compensation for failing to comply with the contract it signed to take the spent nuclear fuel by 1998.<sup id="cite_ref-24" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yucca_Mountain_nuclear_waste_repository#cite_note-24" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">[24]</a></sup>&nbsp;For the ten years after 2015 it is estimated to cost taxpayers $24 billion in payments from the Judgment Fund.<sup id="cite_ref-25" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yucca_Mountain_nuclear_waste_repository#cite_note-25" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">[25]</a></sup>&nbsp;The Judgment Fund is not subject to budget rules and allows Congress to ignore the nuclear waste issue since payments therefrom do not have any impact on yearly spending for other programs.</font></p><h2 style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); font-weight: normal; margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(162, 169, 177); line-height: 1.3;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="mw-headline" id="The_facility">The facility</span></font></h2><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font><table class="box-Update plainlinks metadata ambox ambox-content ambox-Update" role="presentation" style="margin: 0px 135.797px; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 10px; border-style: solid; border-color: rgb(162, 169, 177) rgb(162, 169, 177) rgb(162, 169, 177) rgb(242, 133, 0); border-image: initial; background-color: rgb(251, 251, 251); box-sizing: border-box;"><tbody><tr><td class="mbox-image" style="border: none; padding: 2px 0px 2px 0.5em; text-align: center;"><div style="width: 52px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><img alt="Ambox current red.svg" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/98/Ambox_current_red.svg/42px-Ambox_current_red.svg.png" width="42" height="34" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/98/Ambox_current_red.svg/63px-Ambox_current_red.svg.png 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/98/Ambox_current_red.svg/84px-Ambox_current_red.svg.png 2x" data-file-width="360" data-file-height="290" style="border: 0px; vertical-align: middle;" /></font></div></td><td class="mbox-text" style="border: none; padding: 0.25em 0.5em; width: 882px;"><div class="mbox-text-span"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">This article needs to be&nbsp;<b>updated</b>.<span class="hide-when-compact">&nbsp;Please update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information.</span>&nbsp;<small class="date-container" style=""><i>(<span class="date">February 2017</span>)</i></small></font></div></td></tr></tbody></table><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The purpose of the Yucca Mountain project is to comply with the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 and develop a national site for spent nuclear fuel and high-level&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radioactive_waste" title="Radioactive waste" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">radioactive waste</a>&nbsp;storage. The management and operating contractor as of April 1, 2009 for the project is USA Repository Services (USA-RS), a wholly owned subsidiary of&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/URS_Corporation" title="URS Corporation" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">URS Corporation</a>(now part of AECOM) with supporting principal<b> subcontractors&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shaw_Group" title="The Shaw Group" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Shaw Corporation</a>&nbsp;</b>(now part of McDermott International Inc.) and&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Areva" class="mw-redirect" title="Areva" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Areva</a>&nbsp;Federal Services LLC (now Orano federal services business).<sup id="cite_ref-26" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yucca_Mountain_nuclear_waste_repository#cite_note-26" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[26]</a></sup>&nbsp;After the layoff of 800 employees on March 31, 2009, about 100 employees remained on the project until all technical staff were laid off by the end of FY 2010<sup id="cite_ref-27" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yucca_Mountain_nuclear_waste_repository#cite_note-27" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[27]</a></sup>&nbsp;due to zero funding in the 2011 budget for the Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management.<sup id="cite_ref-28" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yucca_Mountain_nuclear_waste_repository#cite_note-28" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[28]</a></sup>&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandia_National_Laboratories" title="Sandia National Laboratories" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Sandia National Laboratories</a>&nbsp;had the responsibility for post closure analysis and ensuring compliance with the NWPA. The main tunnel of the Exploratory Studies Facility is U-shaped, 5&nbsp;mi (8.0&nbsp;km) long and 25&nbsp;ft (7.6&nbsp;m) wide. There are also several cathedral-like alcoves that branch from the main tunnel. It is in these alcoves that most of the scientific experiments were conducted. The emplacement drifts (smaller diameter tunnels branching off the main tunnel) where waste would have been stored were not constructed since they required a construction authorization by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.<sup id="cite_ref-29" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yucca_Mountain_nuclear_waste_repository#cite_note-29" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[29]</a></sup>&nbsp;The repository has a statutory limit of 77,000 metric tons (85,000 short tons).<sup id="cite_ref-30" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yucca_Mountain_nuclear_waste_repository#cite_note-30" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[30]</a></sup>&nbsp;To store this amount of waste would have required 40 miles (64&nbsp;km) of tunnels.<sup id="cite_ref-2008news_1-1" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yucca_Mountain_nuclear_waste_repository#cite_note-2008news-1" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[1]</a></sup>&nbsp;The Nuclear Waste Policy Act further limits the capacity of the repository to 63,000 metric tons (62,000 long tons; 69,000 short tons) of initial heavy metal in commercial spent fuel. The 104 U.S. commercial reactors currently operating will produce this quantity of spent fuel by 2014,<sup id="cite_ref-31" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yucca_Mountain_nuclear_waste_repository#cite_note-31" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[31]</a></sup>&nbsp;assuming that the spent fuel rods are not reprocessed. Currently, the US has no civil reprocessing plant.</font></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
The&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunnel_boring_machine" title="Tunnel boring machine" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">tunnel boring machine</a>&nbsp;(TBM) that excavated the main tunnel cost $13&nbsp;million </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">and was 400&nbsp;ft (120&nbsp;m) in length when in operation. It now sits at its&nbsp;</span><a class="external text" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/77/Yucca_Mountain_TBM_at_South_Portal.jpg" style="background: linear-gradient(transparent, transparent) right center no-repeat, url(" data:image="data:image" svg="svg" xml="xml" csvg="Csvg" width="%2212%22" height="%2212%22%3E" cpath="Cpath" fill="%22%23fff%22" stroke="%22%2336c%22" d="%22M9.995" h5.982v10.5h1.5z="h5.982V10.5H1.5z" e="E" h11v5.39l9.427="H11v5.39L9.427" l-1.31-1.31l5.393="l-1.31-1.31L5.393" l-2.69-2.688="l-2.69-2.688" l4.2="L4.2" z="z" l.022="l.022" l8.2="L8.2" l2.882-2.88-1.85-1.852z="l2.882-2.88-1.85-1.852z" c="C" text-decoration-line="text-decoration-line" none="none" padding-right="padding-right" px="px" xmlns="%22http://www.w3.org/2000/svg%22" xmlns:data="data">exit point</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">&nbsp;at the South Portal (south entrance) of the facility. The short side tunnel alcoves were excavated using explosives.</span><sup id="cite_ref-39" class="reference" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yucca_Mountain_nuclear_waste_repository#cite_note-39" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[39]</a></sup><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">By 2008, Yucca Mountain was one of the most studied pieces of geology in the world;</span><sup id="cite_ref-32" class="reference" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yucca_Mountain_nuclear_waste_repository#cite_note-32" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[32]</a></sup><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">&nbsp;between geologic studies and materials science</span><sup id="cite_ref-33" class="reference" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yucca_Mountain_nuclear_waste_repository#cite_note-33" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[33]</a></sup><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">&nbsp;the United States had invested US$9 billion on the project.</span><sup id="cite_ref-34" class="reference" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yucca_Mountain_nuclear_waste_repository#cite_note-34" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[34]</a></sup><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">&nbsp;This site studied by the&nbsp;</span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nevada_Bureau_of_Mines_and_Geology" title="Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none;">Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">(NBMG) differs substantially from other potential repositories due to the finding of natural analogues of nuclear material that are currently being studied.</span><sup id="cite_ref-35" class="reference" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yucca_Mountain_nuclear_waste_repository#cite_note-35" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[35]</a></sup><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">&nbsp;The DOE estimates that it has over 100 million U.S. gallons of highly radioactive waste and 2,500 metric tons (2,800 short tons) of spent fuel from the production of nuclear weapons and from research activities in temporary storage.</span><sup id="cite_ref-36" class="reference" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yucca_Mountain_nuclear_waste_repository#cite_note-36" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[36]</a></sup><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">&nbsp;The cost of the facility is being paid for by a combination of a tax on each kilowatt hour of nuclear power and by the taxpayers for disposal of weapons and naval nuclear waste. Based on the 2001 cost estimate, approximately 73 percent is funded from consumers of nuclear-powered electricity and 27 percent by the taxpayers.</span><sup id="cite_ref-37" class="reference" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yucca_Mountain_nuclear_waste_repository#cite_note-37" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[37]</a></sup><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">&nbsp;The Total System Life Cycle Cost presented to Congress on July 15, 2008 by Director Sproat was $90 billion. This cost, could not be compared to previous estimates since it included a repository capacity about twice as large as previously estimated over a much longer period of time (100 years vs 30 years). Additionally, the cost of the project continued to escalate because of insufficient funding to most efficiently move forward and complete the project. By 2007, the DOE announced it was seeking to double the size of the Yucca Mountain repository to a capacity of 135,000 metric tons (149,000 short tons), or 300 million pounds.</span><sup id="cite_ref-38" class="reference" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yucca_Mountain_nuclear_waste_repository#cite_note-38" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[38]</a></sup></font></p><h2 style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); font-weight: normal; margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(162, 169, 177); line-height: 1.3;"><span class="mw-headline" id="Opposition"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Opposition</font></span></h2></div><div><span class="mw-headline"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">...</font></span></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">vice&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A<span style="font-family: " founders="Founders" grotesk="Grotesk" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" calibri="Calibri" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" em="em">merican nuclear power plants produce a lot of radioactive waste, more than 2,000 tons each year, and there’s a lot of controversy over where to put it.</span></font></div><p style="box-sizing: inherit; font-family: " founders="Founders" grotesk="Grotesk" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" calibri="Calibri" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" em="em" line-height="line-height" max-width="max-width" px="px" margin="margin" auto="auto" padding="padding"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">For now, it's spread out in temporary storage casks at about 70 sites across the country, but the Trump administration is eyeing a site in Nevada as a permanent solution.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; font-family: " founders="Founders" grotesk="Grotesk" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" calibri="Calibri" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" em="em" line-height="line-height" max-width="max-width" px="px" margin="margin" auto="auto" padding="padding"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The U.S. Department of Energy decided in 1987 that the best place to put the waste is inside a mountain in the Nevada desert, about 100 miles from Las Vegas. But that project — the Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Repository — has been tied up in permitting red-tape and politics, as Nevada’s elected leaders have aimed to protect their state from catastrophe if something goes wrong. Pressured by powerful then-U.S. Sen. Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat, the Obama administration stopped funding for the Yucca Mountain project’s license in 2010.</font></p><div class="odd-unitcontainercontainer" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-family: " founders="Founders" grotesk="Grotesk" bold="Bold" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" calibri="Calibri" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px"><p style="box-sizing: inherit; font-family: " founders="Founders" grotesk="Grotesk" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" calibri="Calibri" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" em="em" line-height="line-height" max-width="max-width" px="px" margin="margin" auto="auto" padding="padding"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But Reid is gone. And President Trump’s Department of Energy has expressed interest in restarting research and development at Yucca Mountain. Seeing an opening, Illinois Republican Rep. John Shimkus, chair of the Environment Subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, has plowed ahead with a bill passed through the House that would bring Yucca Mountain much closer to opening its doors.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; font-family: " founders="Founders" grotesk="Grotesk" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" calibri="Calibri" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" em="em" line-height="line-height" max-width="max-width" px="px" margin="margin" auto="auto" padding="padding"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But another Nevada senator is standing in the way. This time, it’s U.S. Sen. Dean Heller, a Republican, who has pledged that Nevada will never be the nation’s nuclear waste dumping ground.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; font-family: " founders="Founders" grotesk="Grotesk" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" calibri="Calibri" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" em="em" line-height="line-height" max-width="max-width" px="px" margin="margin" auto="auto" padding="padding"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Under my watch, I will not let one more hard-earned taxpayer dollar go toward this failed project,” Heller said in<a href="https://www.heller.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/2018/5/heller-blasts-house-panel-for-advancing-yucca-mountain-funds" target="_blank" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700; position: relative; margin: 0.67em 0px; transition: all 0.6s cubic-bezier(0.19, 1, 0.22, 1) 0s; text-decoration-line: none; padding: 0px 0.15em; border-bottom: 3px solid rgb(255, 215, 0);">&nbsp;a statement</a>&nbsp;this spring. “Yucca Mountain is dead; it is that simple.”</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; font-family: " founders="Founders" grotesk="Grotesk" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" calibri="Calibri" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" em="em" line-height="line-height" max-width="max-width" px="px" margin="margin" auto="auto" padding="padding"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In a Washington rarity, something trumped partisanship: geography. Illinois has more nuclear waste than any other state, and Shimkus is prepared to fire on members of his own party if it means winning the fight to get nuclear waste out.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; font-family: " founders="Founders" grotesk="Grotesk" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" calibri="Calibri" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" em="em" line-height="line-height" max-width="max-width" px="px" margin="margin" auto="auto" padding="padding"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“When it was Obama and Reid, I could do some righteous anger, partisan-wise,” Shimkus said. “But now it’s [Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch] McConnell and [Republican House Speaker] Paul Ryan."</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; font-family: " founders="Founders" grotesk="Grotesk" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" calibri="Calibri" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" em="em" line-height="line-height" max-width="max-width" px="px" margin="margin" auto="auto" padding="padding"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Without a permanent solution for storing nuclear waste -- which is dangerous some 10,000 years after it’s considered spent fuel -- the nuclear plants themselves store the waste onsite, in so-called concrete “casks,” arranged on the edges of properties. That spent nuclear fuel is piled up in more than 80 locations across the country.</font></p><div class="odd-unitcontainercontainer" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-family: " founders="Founders" grotesk="Grotesk" bold="Bold" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" calibri="Calibri" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px"><p style="box-sizing: inherit; font-family: " founders="Founders" grotesk="Grotesk" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" calibri="Calibri" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" em="em" line-height="line-height" max-width="max-width" px="px" margin="margin" auto="auto" padding="padding"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">At a nuclear power plant outside Rockford, Illinois, Shimkus said his state of 13 million people shouldn’t bear the risk of radioactive waste.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; font-family: " founders="Founders" grotesk="Grotesk" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" calibri="Calibri" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" em="em" line-height="line-height" max-width="max-width" px="px" margin="margin" auto="auto" padding="padding"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“If [casks] stay here, they'll stay here forever,” Shimkus said from the Byron Generating Station, about 100 miles from Chicago. “And the nuclear regulatory commission says these [casks] are safe.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; font-family: " founders="Founders" grotesk="Grotesk" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" calibri="Calibri" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" em="em" line-height="line-height" max-width="max-width" px="px" margin="margin" auto="auto" padding="padding"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“But it's only safe for about 40 or 50 years. Let's find a permanent repository. If completed, Yucca Mountain will be safe for this type of storage for a million years.”</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; font-family: " founders="Founders" grotesk="Grotesk" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" calibri="Calibri" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" em="em" line-height="line-height" max-width="max-width" px="px" margin="margin" auto="auto" padding="padding"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></p></div></div></div></div></div></div>