Nevada senators introduce bill to permanently kill Yucca Mountain nuclear waste plan

On Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2026, at 12:40 p.m., Nevada senators Jacky Rosen and Catherine Cortez Masto introduced legislation to permanently bar Yucca Mountain from serving as a nuclear waste repository and to study alternative uses for the site. ““Nevadans person ever been wide that we volition not let atomic discarded to beryllium stored astatine Yucca Mountain — and that immoderate connection to found a atomic discarded repository needs to beryllium centered connected the consent of the surrounding community,” Rosen said successful a statement. “I’m encouraged by the caller connection from the Trump Administration that acknowledges Yucca Mountain is not an enactment for atomic discarded storage, which is wherefore I anticipation they volition enactment this authorities to guarantee Yucca remains dead. We person an accidental to see the benefits of different uses for the Yucca Mountain tract to make jobs for Nevadans and turn our economy.”” The bill, titled the Jobs, Not Waste Act, would repeal the law that designated Yucca Mountain as a nuclear waste repository. It would also require the Department of Energy to withdraw and terminate the site’s licensing proceeding before the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, direct DOE to reclaim and mitigate any environmental damage at the location, and mandate the Office of Management and Budget to assess the viability and benefits of alternative uses for the land, according to a press release. ““Nevadans person been wide from the opening that our authorities cannot and volition not location the nation’s atomic waste,” Cortez Masto said successful a statement. “While I invited the Trump administration’s caller determination to permission the unworkable Yucca Mountain connection behind, we cannot instrumentality thing for granted. It’s clip to walk our Jobs, Not Waste Act to research different uses for the Yucca tract and let states who privation to store atomic discarded to bash so.”” The legislation follows a Trump administration signal to scrap Yucca Mountain as the nation’s sole designated nuclear waste repository and instead allow states to volunteer to host such facilities. The U.S. Department of Energy said last week that five states have agreed to accept nuclear waste from around the country in exchange for federal assistance to develop nuclear energy and create thousands of jobs, a shift that could permanently end plans for the controversial repository roughly 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas. Since 2011, the Obama, Trump and Biden administrations have largely blocked or declined to pursue Yucca Mountain as an active repository. Meanwhile, Congress halted funding for Yucca Mountain’s development and licensing. There is no companion bill in the U.S. House.