Nevada wants feds to declare mothballed nuke dump plan dead

By KEN RITTER
Associated Press

LAS VEGAS (AP) — After a decade in limbo, Nevada is pressing U.S. nuclear regulators to finally kill a mothballed proposal to entomb the nation’s most radioactive waste in the desert north of Las Vegas. A document submitted Tuesday to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission derides the Yucca Mountain plan as a “zombie-like” federal project that has remained on the books without funding for more than 10 years. The NRC offered no immediate comment. The U.S. has no long-term plan for managing or disposing of hazardous nuclear waste, but Energy Department officials have spoken recently about the need to find one. Federal funding for the Yucca Mountain site was halted under then-U.S. Senate Democratic Majority Leader Harry Reid and the Obama administration.