Sponsors (2)
The bill protects nearby communities and the environment by withdrawing Yucca Mountain as a nuclear repository and funding site reclamation, but it leaves the country without a clear permanent waste solution, shifting costs, logistical burdens, legal risks, and interim storage responsibilities onto utilities, states, taxpayers, and reactor communities.
Residents near Yucca Mountain (including Tribal communities and nearby rural communities) will not have a permanent nuclear waste repository imposed at the site, reducing their long-term local radioactive risk.
The Department of Energy will be required to reclaim and mitigate environmental harms at the Yucca site, which can reduce local contamination and restore land.
Taxpayers may avoid further federal spending on continuing the Yucca licensing process and on construction/operation of a repository at that site.
Nuclear utilities, reactor-site communities, and the nation will be left without a clear permanent repository path, prolonging on-site and interim storage of spent fuel and raising long-term safety and management risks.
State governments, utilities, and nuclear workers will face increased costs and logistical burdens from extended dry-cask or at-reactor storage absent a permanent repository.
Repealing prior statutory approvals and withdrawing the site could prompt legal and administrative disputes over spent-fuel management responsibilities and liability, creating litigation risk and delay.
Based on analysis of 4 sections of legislative text.
Withdraws DOE's Yucca Mountain application, terminates NRC licensing, repeals prior approvals, bars future repository consideration, orders site reclamation, and directs an OMB study of alternative uses.
Official title: To terminate the Yucca Mountain licensing proceeding and require the Director of the Office of Management and Budget to submit to Congress a study on the economic viability and job-creating benefits of alternative uses of the Yucca Mountain site, and for other purposes.
Introduced August 24, 2026 by Susie Lee · Last progress August 24, 2026
Ends federal efforts to develop Yucca Mountain as a spent nuclear fuel repository by repealing the prior approval statutes, withdrawing the Department of Energy's construction application, and terminating the Nuclear Regulatory Commission licensing proceeding. It bars the Secretary of Energy from reconsidering Yucca Mountain for a repository, requires the Secretary to reclaim the site and mitigate significant environmental harm, and orders an OMB study on economically viable alternative uses for the site within 180 days. The bill defines key terms, references the NRC and Secretary of Energy, and asks OMB to assess job-creation potential from alternatives such as defense facilities, renewable energy, or scientific research modeled on prior GAO analysis. The actions take effect on enactment and direct executive agencies to act promptly on reclamation and study delivery.