The Nuclear Waste Policy Act was passed first in 1982 and has since been changed and amended multiple times. In the past, nuclear wastes have been disposed of in unsafe ways, and they were often simply dumped into the ocean or buried underground unsafely. Thus, the intended goal of the law is to safely and permanently dispose of spent nuclear wastes from power plants in areas that will prevent leakage and environmental problems within the next 10,000 years or more. Many sites for these nuclear waste repositories have been considered, most of which have been in dry, barren desert areas that have low probabilities of leaking into the water table or being exposed to delicate, productive ecosystems or large population centers. Within the last few years, the prospective sites have been narrowed down from three possible sites to one: Yucca Mountain in Nevada, a geographically-isolated place in Nevada's dry, barren desert. Although there has been much controversy surrounding this issue, the plans were finally approved by President Bush in 2002 so that the Yucca Mountain Repository will hopefully begin operation in 2017.
Clearly, the main goal of the NWPA is to safely dispose of nuclear wastes for the next several thousands of years so that they will not permanently scar the planet in the near future or for posterity. This law, which does not have an end date due to the permanence of the proposed repository in society for the next many thousands of years, proposes a plan that will prevent wastes from leaching into the surrounding rock and outside environment. For many reasons, the Yucca Mountain site was chosen due to its geology, that would supposedly even prevent harmful environmental consequences if there was a chemical leak, and its isolation, that would prevent radiation exposure to large population centers. Therefore, the NWPA is notable because it seriously takes into account almost all possible disasters and their consequences and has attempted to create the safest disposal of nuclear wastes. Thus, there have been preventative steps taken to reduce the risk of another Chernobyl or Love Canal, New York, from occurring and damaging the lives of many and the surrounding environment.