Reid's rise to power may be bad news for Yucca backers

[NVMojo]

WASHINGTON - When pro-Yucca Mountain advocates called on Senate Majority Leader-elect Harry Reid to step aside from the nuclear waste debate, some saw it as an act of desperation over the stalled project.

After the Democrats' victory in last month's elections, efforts to build the nation's first nuclear waste repository seem to be at a crossroads.

Reid's new position all but halts legislative efforts to "fix Yucca" and seriously jeopardizes its continued funding. The looming presidential race, with its early Democratic caucus in Nevada, means contenders likely will have little appetite to support a project unpopular with Silver State voters. Plans for establishing interim waste storage elsewhere continue to be floated as options.

And the Department of Energy faces a 2008 deadline to present the project for approval - a milestone that has been blown twice before.

Michele Boyd, legislative director for energy policy at Public Citizen, a Washington, D.C.-based watchdog group that opposes Yucca Mountain, said all bets are riding on that deadline.

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