Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository

Yucca Mountain
The proposed design[1]

The Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Repository, as designated by the Nuclear Waste Policy Act amendments of 1987,[2] is a proposed deep geological repository storage facility within Yucca Mountain for spent nuclear fuel and other high-level radioactive waste in the United States. The site is on federal land adjacent to the Nevada Test Site in Nye County, Nevada, about 80 mi (130 km) northwest of the Las Vegas Valley.

The project was approved in 2002 by the 107th United States Congress, but the 112th Congress ended federal funding for the site via amendment to the Department of Defense and Full-Year Continuing Appropriations Act, passed on April 14, 2011, during the Obama administration.[3] The project has encountered many difficulties and was highly contested by the public, the Western Shoshone peoples, and many politicians.[4] The project also faces strong state and regional opposition.[5] The Government Accountability Office stated that the closure was for political, not technical or safety reasons.[6]

This leaves the United States government (which disposes of its transuranic waste from nuclear weapons production 2,150 feet (660 m) below the surface at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico)[7] and American nuclear power plants without any designated long-term storage for their high-level radioactive waste (spent fuel) stored on-site in steel and concrete casks (dry cask storage) at 76 reactor sites in 34 states.[8][9][10][11]

Under President Barack Obama, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) reviewed options other than Yucca Mountain for a high-level waste repository. The Blue Ribbon Commission on America's Nuclear Future, established by the Secretary of Energy, 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 Nuclear Waste Fund, which is not subject to political and financial control as the Cabinet-level DOE is.[12] But the site met with strong opposition in Nevada, including from then-Senate leader Harry Reid.[2]

Under President Donald Trump, the DOE ceased deep borehole[13] and other non-Yucca Mountain waste disposition research activities. For FY18, the DOE requested $120 million and the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) $30 million[14] from Congress to continue licensing activities for the Yucca Mountain Repository. For fiscal year 2019, the DOE again requested $120 million while the NRC increased its request to $47.7 million.[15] Congress provided no funding for the remainder of fiscal year 2018.[16] In May 2019, Representative John Shimkus reintroduced a bill in the U.S. House of Representatives for the site,[2] but the Appropriation Committee killed an amendment by Representative Mike Simpson to add $74 million in Yucca Mountain funding to a DOE appropriations bill.[2] On May 20, 2020, Under Secretary of Energy Mark W. Menezes testified in front of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee that President Trump strongly opposes proceeding with the Yucca Mountain Repository.[17]

In May 2021, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said that Yucca Mountain would not be part of the Biden administration's plans for nuclear-waste disposal. She anticipated announcing the department's next steps "in the coming months".[18]

  1. ^ "Nuclear waste repository safe for future generations". 1663 LANL Sci/Tech Magazine. December 2008. Archived from the original on May 6, 2009. Retrieved June 2, 2019.
  2. ^ a b c d Cite error: The named reference usa was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ "Publication" (PDF). www.congress.gov. Retrieved September 10, 2021.
  4. ^ Ryan, Cy (March 16, 2012). "Nye County, Sandoval clash over future of Yucca – Las Vegas Sun Newspaper". lasvegassun.com. Retrieved February 19, 2020.
  5. ^ "Yucca Mountain opposition to be focus at Las Vegas conference". Las Vegas Review-Journal. September 5, 2017. Retrieved February 19, 2020.
  6. ^ "GAO: Death of Yucca Mountain Caused by Political Maneuvering". The New York Times. May 9, 2011.
  7. ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). wipp.energy.gov. Archived from the original (PDF) on September 30, 2011. Retrieved November 16, 2011.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  8. ^ Mishkin, Kate (August 24, 2021). "'A combination of failures:' why 3.6m pounds of nuclear waste is buried on a popular California beach". The Guardian. Under the US Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982, the federal government was to move waste into a centralized, remote federal facility starting in 1998. In 2002, George W Bush approved Yucca Mountain, a site about 100 miles from Las Vegas, as a permanent underground nuclear waste repository. But in 2010, the Obama administration scrapped the controversial plan. ... Spent fuel is stored at 76 reactor sites in 34 states, according to the Department of Energy.
  9. ^ "5 Fast Facts about Spent Nuclear Fuel". United States Department of Energy. March 30, 2020.
  10. ^ Rubin, Gabriel (May 14, 2021). "Escape From Yucca Mountain: Biden Administration Promises Progress on Nuclear Waste". Wall Street Journal. The only federally designated long-term disposal site for waste from the nuclear power industry is at Yucca Mountain in Nevada (there is also a site near Carlsbad, N.M., for waste generated by the government's nuclear weapons program).
  11. ^ "NRC: Locations of Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installations". U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. October 15, 2009. Archived from the original on May 27, 2010. Retrieved July 13, 2010.
  12. ^ Hamilton, Lee H.; Scowcroft, Brent (January 2012). "Blue Ribbon Commission on America's Nuclear Future Final Report" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on August 7, 2012. Retrieved October 25, 2012.
  13. ^ Lester, Tiffany (May 23, 2017). "Dept. of Energy stops work on Deep Borehole Field Test program". KVII. Retrieved February 19, 2020.
  14. ^ "Nuclear agency seeks $30M for Yucca Mountain licensing review". Las Vegas Review-Journal. June 7, 2017. Retrieved February 19, 2020.
  15. ^ "NRC Aims For Budget Bump for FY19 - ExchangeMonitor | Page 1". ExchangeMonitor. February 13, 2018. Retrieved February 19, 2020.
  16. ^ Natter, Ari (March 6, 2018). "Congress Poised to Skip Funding Yucca Nuke Dump Again This Year". www.bloomberg.com. Retrieved February 19, 2020.
  17. ^ "Energy Department nominee shifts on Yucca Mountain question". reviewjournal.com. May 20, 2020.
  18. ^ Rubin, Gabriel T. (May 14, 2021). "Escape From Yucca Mountain: Biden Administration Promises Progress on Nuclear Waste". Wall Street Journal – via www.wsj.com.