The U.S. Program Today
The U.S. nuclear waste management program now faces a series of significant, nearly insurmountable, issues that must be resolved before there is any confidence that the nuclear waste at the back-end of the nuclear fuel cycle can be safely stored, transported and placed in a geological repository for final disposal. After more than thirty years of effort, there is still no clear way forward for the selection, characterization and development of a geologic repository for spent nuclear fuel (SNF) and high-level nuclear waste (HLW). In 2010, the Obama Administration attempted to withdraw the license application for the Yucca Mountain site in Nevada. In 2013 the Nuclear Regulatory Commission was ordered by a federal court to continue the license application review, as long as funding was available. Because those funds were limited and no new money has been appropriated since 2010, the Yucca Mountain Project is now caught in a political limbo between proponents and opponents. Even if that project should move forward, it has become clear to most parties that important changes will need to be made in the U.S. approach.
