Legislative Background
Recent Action on Nuclear Waste Policy
Congress has long debated the question of where to store the Nation’s nuclear waste that has accumulated over the past 40 years. With passage of the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982, Congress envisioned that spent nuclear fuel and radioactive waste would have a permanent burial site by 1998. In 1987, Congress designated Yucca Mountain, in Nevada, as the permanent site, pending further study. A report on the viability of Yucca Mountain as a permanent storage site is due for completion by the Energy Department in 1998. Legislation is under consideration in the current Congress to construct an interim storage…
