The purpose of this environmental impact statement (EIS) is to provide information on potential environmental impacts that could result from a Proposed Action to construct, operate and monitor, and eventually close a geologic repository for the disposal of spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste at the Yucca Mountain site in Nye County, Nevada. The EIS also provides information on potential environmental impacts from an alternative referred to as the No-Action Alternative, under which there would be no development of a geologic repository at Yucca Mountain.

Contents: (1) Proposals for a New Direction; (2) Baseline: Current Waste Program Projections; (3) Options for Halting or Delaying Yucca Mountain: Withdraw License Application; Reduce Appropriations; Key Policy Appointments; Waste Program Review; (4) Consequences of a Yucca Mountain Policy Shift: Federal Liabilities for Disposal Delays; Licensing Complications for New Power Reactors; Environmental Cleanup Penalties; Long-Term Risk; (5) Nuclear Waste Policy: Options; Institutional Changes; Extended On-Site Storage; Federal Central Interim Storage; Private Central Storage; Spent Fuel Reprocessing and Recycling; Non-Repository Options; New Repository Site; (6) Concluding Discussion.