page_title: Nuclear energy policy of the United States
section_title: Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982, as amended
hierarchical_section_title: Nuclear energy policy of the United States / First nuclear age / Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982, as amended
context_page_description: The nuclear energy policy of the United States developed within two main periods, from 1954–1992 and 2005–2010. The first period saw the ongoing building of nuclear power plants, the enactment of numerous pieces of legislation such as the Energy Reorganization Act of 1974, and the implementation of countless policies which have guided the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Department of Energy in the regulation and growth of nuclear energy companies. This includes, but is not limited to, regulations of nuclear facilities, waste storage, decommissioning of weapons-grade materials, uranium mining, and funding for nuclear companies, along with an increase in power plant building. Both legislation and bureaucratic regulations of nuclear energy in the United States have been shaped by scientific research, private industries' wishes, and public opinion, which has shifted over time and as a result of different nuclear disasters.
  In the United States, there have been numerous legislative actions and policies implemented on a federal and state level to both regulate atomic energy and promote its expansion.
context_section_description: The Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 established both the federal government's responsibility to provide a place for the permanent disposal of high-level radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel, and the generators' responsibility to bear the costs of permanent disposal. The Act provides for extensive state, tribal, and public participation in the planning and development of permanent repositories. Amendments to the Act focused the federal government's efforts, through the DOE, on studying a possible site at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, but the project was canceled in 2009. Without a long-term solution to store nuclear waste, a nuclear renaissance in the U.S. remains unlikely. Nine states have "explicit moratoria on new nuclear power until a storage solution emerges".
caption: The current locations across the U.S. where nuclear waste is stored
exif: {}