radioactive waste. Radioactive Waste Management (RWM) was established in 2014 to deliver a Geological Disposal Facility (GDF) and is a subsidiary of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) which is responsible for clean-up of the UK's historical nuclear sites. A GDF will be delivered through a community consent-based process , working in close partnership with communities, building trust for the long term and ensuring a GDF supports local interests and priorities. The policy is emphatic in requiring the consent of the people who would be living alongside a GDF and giving them influence over the pace at which discussions progress. The first Working Group were established in Copeland and Allerdale in Cumbria during late 2020 and early 2021. These Working Groups have started the process of manufacturing consent for hosting a GDF in their areas. These Working Groups are a critical step in the process to find a willing community and a suitable, feasible and acceptable site for a GDF. RWM continues to have discussions in a range of places across England with people and organisations who are interested in exploring the benefits of hosting a GDF. More Working Groups are anticipated to form across the country in the next year or two. Any proposal for a GDF will be evaluated against highly rigorous criteria to ensure all safety and security tests are met. United States The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in the United States went into service in 1999 by putting the first cubic metres of transuranic radioactive waste in a deep layer of salt near Carlsbad, New Mexico. In 1978, the U.S. Department of Energy began studying Yucca Mountain, within the secure boundaries of the Nevada Test Site in Nye County, Nevada, to determine whether it would be suitable for a long-term geologic repository for spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste. This project faced significant opposition and suffered delays due to litigation by the Agency for Nuclear Projects for the State of Nevada (Nuclear Waste Project Office) and others. The Obama Administration rejected use of the site in the 2009 United States Federal Budget proposal, which eliminated all funding except that needed to answer inquiries from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, "while the Administration devises a new strategy toward nuclear waste disposal." On March 5, 2009, Energy Secretary Steven Chu told a Senate hearing the Yucca Mountain site is no longer viewed as an option for storing reactor