With the U.S. Department of Energy’s March 3 withdrawal of a license application to build a high-level nuclear waste dump under Nevada’s Yucca Mountain, the long-contested project is at last on its way to being shut down. The department’s motion was filed “with prejudice” — meaning the site could never again be considered for use.

The mountain, located within the Western Shoshone Nation and a sacred place for the Shoshone and Paiute peoples, was selected in 1987 to become the nation’s first long-term geological repository for spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste.

Despite significant ongoing protest and legal challenges from Native Americans, Nevada residents and environmentalists, Congress officially approved the program in 2002. However, last year President Barack Obama, in his 2010 budget request, indicated that the federal government would begin exploring other options, and in February the Energy Department told Congress it planned to shift $115 million from the Yucca Mountain program budget into efforts to shut down the project.

On March 23, a group of House Democrats and Republicans — representing districts in Washington, South Carolina and Michigan that currently store nuclear waste — introduced a resolution to stop the administration from ending the program. Members of a House energy subcommittee also challenged the Energy Department’s actions, claiming it went against Congress’ directions in its energy spending bill for the 2010 budget.

However, Energy Secretary Steven Chu, responding in a letter, said, “We do have the authority within the law to take the reprogramming actions we have planned.” DOE press secretary Stephanie Mueller went further, saying, “Make no mistake, the department will be shutting down the Yucca Mountain project this year.”

To learn more about Yucca Mountain and native struggles to protect it, read our Yucca Mountain sacred site report.