A much-anticipated report on the future of nuclear waste disposal in the United States was made public Thursday. It offered a broad outline of how the country might approach the disposal of 67,500 tons of spent fuel in light of the government’s failure to construct a repository for it in Nevada’s Yucca Mountain.The report from The Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future recommended a “consent-based approach” to siting waste storage facilities, noting that trying to site them in states and regions that oppose their construction hasn’t worked in the past. The commission also recommended that the nuclear waste management program be placed under the authority of a dedicated organization independent of the Department of Energy. The report urged the immediate development of at least one geologic repository and at least one consolidated storage facility, as well as preparations for transporting spent fuel to them. Nonetheless, the commission was not asked to make recommendations about Yucca Mountain or any other specific site, according to a press release announcing the report.Yucca Mountain, on a former nuclear weapons testing site in Nevada, was selected as the best site for a national high-level waste repository by Congress in 1987. It was supposed to be operational in 1998, and utilities have successfully sued the government for costs related to storing spent fuel since then. In a move contested in the courts, the Yucca Mountain project has been defunded in the federal budget, and the DOE under President Barack Obama withdrew its application to operate the repository in 2010. The same year, the DOE appointed the commission to study the government’s approach to waste storage.Utility customers pay a tax on electricity generated by reactors into the Nuclear Waste Fund, which was set up to pay for the repository. The commission also recommended that money, roughly $750 million per year, be set aside within the federal budget so Congress can only use it for projects related to waste disposal.