Donald Trump's Gettysburgh speech and campaign promises

The President-elect’s Transition Team also wants to know if there are any legal barriers to moving ahead with a national high-level nuclear waste disposal site at Yucca Mountain in Nevada, a project vehemently opposed by Nevada's congressional delegation, its Governor, and a majority of its citizens. The project was halted in 2010 by the Obama Administration and Republicans are eager to resurrect it.

At the center of the Yucca Mountain controversy is whether the rock itself, where the repository would be located beneath the mountain, is a good rock for this purpose or not. The flaws of that rock – a fractured, dual porosity, variably saturated, volcanic tuff that leaks metal-corroding oxidizing water - have already increased the original estimated cost about ten times.

The final cost for Yucca Mountain will be so high that planned funding, including the Nuclear Waste Fund (a nuclear energy tax collected from the utilities for decades to pay for disposal) cannot cover the final cost. Since it is unlikely that Congress would ever allocate an additional hundred billion dollars or more for this site, DOE has been trying to find an alternative for years.

“It's three agencies of government, when I get there, that are gone: Commerce, Education and, the, uh, what's the third one there?” Perry said during a primary season debate. “Commerce, Education and the uh, the uh..."

He continued. "The third agency of government I would do away with -- the Education, uh the, uh, Commerce, and let's see -- I can't... the third one, I can't. I'm sorry ... oops."

It was one of the more awkward moments in the history of presidential politics. Later in the debate, Perry finally remembered the agency he was reaching for was Energy.