Nuclear waste management is a controversial topic.
Nobody wants their city or state to be chosen as a repository of nuclear waste.
But at the same time, it is necessary to find a safe place to store these hazardous materials. Initially, the government planned to remove and recycle the useful nuclear by-products from the reactors . However, Nuclear Reprocessing or Recycling Plants were extremely expensive to operate. So, in 1982, the United States Congress passed the Nuclear Waste Policy Act which started the search for a permanent, underground location to store nuclear waste products. Currently, Yucca Mountain, located 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas, is the prime location under study.