Examining America’s Nuclear Waste Management and Storage

PURPOSE:

• To examine the management of our nation’s increasing amount of nuclear waste.
• To highlight the challenges communities across the country face when dealing with nuclear waste.

BACKGROUND:

• Over the last four decades, the nuclear industry has produced 76,430 metric tons of nuclear waste – enough to cover a football field eight yards deep.
• In 1982, Congress passed the Nuclear Waste Policy Act (NWPA), which directs the Department of Energy to build and operate a repository for used nuclear fuels and other high-level radioactive waste. 
• Despite the NWPA, the United States does not utilize one repository or storage site, leaving nuclear waste sitting at numerous nuclear facilities throughout communities nationwide.