Lawyer Sanders says Yucca Mountain is not yet licensed to store nuclear waste material.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) began studying Yucca Mountain, Nevada, in 1978 to determine whether it would be suitable for the nation's first long-term geologic repository for spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste. Currently stored at 126 sites around the nation, these radioactive materials are a result of nuclear power generation and national defense programs.

On July 23, 2002, President Bush signed House Joint Resolution 87, allowing the DOE to take the next step in establishing a safe repository in which to store our nation's nuclear waste. The Department of Energy is currently in the process of preparing an application to obtain the Nuclear Regulatory Commission license to proceed with construction of the repository.
Yucca Mountain is located in a remote desert on federally protected land within the secure boundaries of the Nevada Test Site in Nye County, Nevada. It is approximately 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas, Nevada.

If the U.S. Department of Energy receives a license from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to build and operate a repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, it will begin shipping nuclear waste from commercial and government-owned sites to the repository sometime after 2017. This opening date of 2017 is a "best-achievable schedule" and is predicated upon enactment of new legislation.The department must ship the waste according to strict federal regulations. The waste will be transported in heavily shielded casks certified by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission along approved transportation routes. Additionally, the department will provide technical assistance and funding to states and Native American tribes for training emergency response personnel.

Receiving nuclear waste activities at the Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management concentrate primarily on the acceptance of spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste from commercial and government-owned sites to the planned geologic repository at the Yucca Mountain Site in Nevada.Receiving nuclear waste is the formal process of taking title to and physical possession of waste from commercial and government-owned sites. The process includes establishing annual acceptance allocations, verification of waste data, and managing contractual and legal issues associated with waste acceptance.