Updated January 2007
The State Role in Regulation of Hazardous and Radioactive Materials
 Since nuclear weapons production began in the early 1940s, numerous forms of nuclear waste have been generated. Although the true nature of the waste being created was unknown, much of it was stored inappropriately on-site at the Department of Energy facilities. As use of nuclear energy became more common, the spent fuel generated during energy production was stored at the reactor sites. In the 1950s the National Academy of Sciences recommended deep geologic disposal of the long-lived, highly radioactive wastes from nuclear reactors.
Throughout the 1970s, the federal government screened sites for a repository, specifically looking at buried salt deposits and federal nuclear facility sites. With the congressional enactment of the Nuclear Waste Policy Act in 1982 real progress was made in identifying potential sites for the repository. It also was in 1982 that the federal government assumed responsibility for the ultimate disposal of spent nuclear fuel. When the NWPA was amended in 1987, the Yucca Mountain site was identified as the sole site to be characterized for the nation's ge ologic repository.
With the official presidential designation of Yucca Mountain and subsequent approval by Congress in 2002, states have had to acknowledge and address the implications of the siting of the repository. Of all the issues associated with housing the nation's high-level waste and spent nuclear fuel at one facility, the one of greatest interest to the states is the transportation of the waste to its final resting place. States want to ensure that transportation is carried out in a safe and secure manner to ensure the health and safety of their communities. But because the repository is to begin accepting waste in 2017 at the earliest, states also have to consider the issues associated with the interim storage of spent nuclear fuel.
Although the federal government is the central regulator of nuclear waste transportation, state governments have an extremely important role to play. To that end, NCSL offers several types of assistant, such as the High-Level Radioactive Waste Working Group, and other sources found on this website to help state legislators better understand how they fit into the federal transportation regulatory structure and be better able to safeguard their citizens.
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