Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) “said Thursday the Obama administration has assured him it will seek to eliminate funding for a review needed to open a nuclear waste repository below Nevada’s Yucca Mountain,” the AP reports.
The money for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission effort would be eliminated for fiscal year 2011. The loss of the money would sap the agency of the resources necessary to review an Energy Department application seeking approval to build the repository.
President Barack Obama opposes the use of Yucca Mountain as a nuclear waste dump. Still, the law requiring that waste be stored at the site remains on the books, so the project could in theory be revived.
The construction of a nuclear waste repository “in Nevada is extremely unpopular with voters there and the state’s lawmakers are eager to trumpet any progress they make in killing the project.”
On Wednesday, the Senate “voted to cut funding for the NRC’s review to $29 million in 2010.”
Congress in Your Pocket
