The
Yucca Mountain Project has submitted a license application for
the nation's first-ever repository
for spent nuclear fuel and high-level
radioactive waste.
For
more than two decades, the Project
conducted an extensive scientific
effort to determine whether Yucca Mountain,
Nevada is a suitable site for a deep
underground facility called a repository. The
purpose of a repository is to safely
isolate highly radioactive nuclear
waste for up to one million years.
To learn more about Yucca Mountain, click the links in the menu on the right, or see "Questions and Answers About Yucca Mountain."
On July 9, 2002, the U.S. Senate cast the final legislative vote approving the development of a repository at Yucca Mountain.
On June 3, 2008, the Department of Energy submitted a license application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission seeking approval to construct the repository.
The NRC may take three years for its license application review and may ask Congress for a fourth year.
The NRC may then grant authorization to build the repository.
Other activities will include construction of a rail line to the repository; repository construction, testing, training, and start-up; and a request to the NRC to "receive and possess" spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste.
Last reviewed: 12/08
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