WASHINGTON, DC — The Department of Energy (DOE) has recommended that Yucca Mountain in Nevada, a location approximately 90 miles from Las Vegas, be used as the nation’s nuclear waste site for the permanent burial of waste from nuclear power plants and weapons facilities.

However, local officials, environmentalists, and some Democrats in Congress have expressed staunch opposition to the Yucca Mountain plan, which the DOE has been studying for well over 10 years. So the plan faces an uncertain future and could be stalled or stopped before it is ever implemented.

The project has a reported cost of more than $40 billion.