Senate panel restores nuke funds

Friday, June 5, 1998 | 11:53 a.m.

The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee has restored $10.4 million for Nevada oversight of the Yucca Mountain nuclear repository project.

The committee agreed late Thursday night to give $4.8 million to the state and $5.4 million to 10 counties that review studies conducted by the U.S. Department of Energy. The Senate Budget Committee is expected to consider the funding for the energy financing package.

Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, is the only site under study by the DOE to become the nation's first high-level nuclear waste dump. Congress had stopped state funding in 1995, claiming the Agency for Nuclear Projects used the money to lobby against the repository.

The budget bill also contains $70 million for subcritical experiments at the Nevada Test Site. The DOE says the tests are necessary to keep the U.S. nuclear stockpile safe and since they are not nuclear explosions they do not violate the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.

Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., ranking member of the committee, said the budget bill also gives Southern Nevada $23 million for flood control projects in the Tropicana and Flamingo washes.

The federal funds combined with a quarter-cent sales tax imposed in 1989 will help protect people and property in the Las Vegas Valley from life-threatening floods by allowing Clark County to build detention basins to capture mountain runoff.

The two large dry washes cut across the Las Vegas Valley, posing a flooding threat during torrential rains.

In addition, Reid said Clark County will receive $250,000 for methane gas testing at the closed Sunrise Mountain landfill.

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