In 2009, the Department of Energy announced it was halting work on Yucca Mountain in the Nevada desert which The Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 established as the preferred and only site for permanent storage of nuclear waste. The law also committed the federal government to accept defense waste and commercial spent fuel for long-term storage. When the waste finally reached the depths of Yucca Mountain, it would be safe and secure. It was a solution forever sealed from human intervention.

The SRSCRO believes the federal government has broken faith with our communities and with others across the country that trusted implicitly in the Department of Energy’s commitment to complete Yucca Mountain as the nation’s preferred method of nuclear waste storage.  DOE’s action in terminating Yucca Mountain has the effect of turning the Savannah River Site and many other locations across the country into de facto permanent storage sites.