<P> Under President Barack Obama the Department of Energy (DOE) was reviewing 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 Department of Energy is . </P> <P> Under President Donald Trump, the DOE has ceased deep borehole and other non-Yucca Mountain waste disposition research activities . For FY18, DOE had requested $120 million and the NRC $30 million 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 . Congress has decided to provide no funding for the remainder of FY18 . </P> <P> In the meantime, most nuclear power plants in the United States have resorted to the indefinite on - site dry cask storage of waste in steel and concrete casks . </P> <P> Spent nuclear fuel is the radioactive by - product of electricity generation at commercial nuclear power plants, and high - level radioactive waste is the by - product from reprocessing spent fuel to produce fissile material for nuclear weapons . 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 Nuclear Waste Policy Act, 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 National Academy of Sciences 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 . </P>

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