Project 2025 Tracker / What’s done, what’s next

12. Department of Energy and Related Commissions · Major

Restart the Yucca Mountain licensing process

Not started

397 12. Department of Energy and Related Commissions

“Restart Yucca Mountain licensing. DOE should restart the Yucca Mountain licensing process. Any continuation of interim storage facilities should be made part of an integrated waste management system that includes geologic storage.”

What has happened

  1. Not started

    No DOE request to resume the NRC adjudication, no Nuclear Waste Fund appropriation for Yucca Mountain, and no Federal Register document on the repository since 2025-01-20. The NRC's only action in the window was to deny Nevada's motion to lift the suspension (CLI-25-01, 2025-03-06), keeping the proceeding in abeyance; the FY2026 Energy-Water act and the FY2027 request hold Nuclear Waste Disposal at $12.04 million with no repository line.

    No action found yet. This entry is the starting point, not a finding.

Research log

What was searched, and what didn’t count as evidence

Research notes

  • NRC Memorandum and Order CLI-25-01 (2025-03-06), https://www.nrc.gov/docs/ML2506/ML25065A051.pdf, denies Nevada’s request to lift the suspension for the limited purpose of hearing three summary-disposition motions and “continue[s] to hold this adjudication in abeyance”. DOE did not join the request. The PDF opened once but refused to open for us after that; its page numbers could not be read. It is context for not started, not Evidence of any step toward restarting.
  • Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects press-release page (anp.nv.gov) no longer exists at either address tried; the NRC Yucca licensing pages (nrc.gov/waste/hlw-disposal/yucca-lic-app.html and the licensing backgrounder) would not open for us. These are leads, not Evidence.
  • Negative search: Federal Register full-text “Yucca Mountain” since 2025-01-20 returns 7 documents, none about the repository (NRC information-collection renewals for 10 CFR 63, Sunset Rule, zero-based regulating); “yucca” across the Federal Register documents, White House presidential actions, bills and public laws we keep and search: 0 hits; FY2026 Energy-Water act (P.L. 119-74) text: “Nuclear Waste Disposal … $12,040,000 … derived from the Nuclear Waste Fund”, no Yucca line; DOE FY2027 Budget in Brief (2026-04-03): Nuclear Waste Disposal Fund flat at $12,040,000.
Action
reinstate
Object
Yucca Mountain licensing application
ID
1004