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Under the Act, the Department of Energy has the responsibility 

 to provide for the permanent disposal of high-level radioactive 

 waste such as spent nuclear fuel or reprocessed spent nuclear 

 fuel. In addition, the Act strengthened the role of States and 

 the public in the process leading to permanent disposal. The 

 Act provides a mandate and a set of rules for proceeding with 

 the identification and selection of sites for a repository as 

 well as for interim storage facilities in the event storage 

 facilities are needed. The Act also established a funding 

 mechanism for the program whereby the owners and generators of 

 spent nuclear fuel and high-level waste must pay a fee for 

 electricity generated by nuclear power in exchange for disposal 

 services. 



The Act also authorizes specific research and development 

 activities; provides for international cooperation with 

 non-nuclear weapon states in the field of spent fuel storage 

 and disposal; and contains other provisions relating to 

 radioactive waste. 



Many isolation concepts have been discussed over the years. 

 The concept of isolating nuclear waste in mined repositories 

 deep underground was first advanced in 1957 by a committee of 

 the National Academy of Sciences and has since been suggested 

 and reconfirmed by other technical and scientific groups. As 



