Yucca Mountain, a ridge of volcanic rock, has been the main focus of a federal program that has spent $10.4 billion seeking a repository for nuclear waste.

Opposition to such a repository has been fierce in Nevada, and President Obama spoke out against the project during his campaign. In February, he released a proposed budget cutting off most of the money for Yucca Mountain and promised to appoint a commission to look into alternatives.

But even that has been delayed. B. John Garrick, the chairman of the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board, established by Congress in 1987, said the White House had announced plans for a panel to review NASA about the same time it pledged to form the blue-ribbon commission on nuclear waste. The space flight board has already been appointed, done its work and announced its findings, he said.

“Anything nuclear is just very difficult, it seems,” Mr. Garrick said.

Some experts on the nuclear industry have speculated that elected officials might prefer a report that comes after the midterm elections in 2010, because the commission could recommend proceeding with Yucca Mountain.

Meanwhile, the government is continuing to pursue an operating license for Yucca, although the proposed financing for that work was slashed at the behest of the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid of Nevada, a strong opponent of the project. Mr. Reid wants limited financing for the federal fiscal year beginning on Oct. 1 and none at all for the year after that.