Senate gives Nevada $268 million toward nuke waste oversight

Tuesday, June 1, 1999 | 10:20 a.m.

Nevada has secured $268 million in funds for nuclear waste oversight at Yucca Mountain, water quality studies and flood control in a Senate budget package.

The Senate Energy and Water Appropriations Committee finished writing the spending bill for 2000 on Thursday. If the full Senate approves and President Clinton agrees, the funds would come to Nevada after Oct. 1.

The state Agency for Nuclear Projects could receive $4.7 million to review the Energy Department's ongoing studies at Yucca Mountain, the only site under study as a high-level nuclear waste repository. President Clinton had asked for that amount and it would be the most the state has received since 1996, when Congress cut funds after alleging the state used some of the money to lobby against the project.

The House has not written its version of the energy bill.

Affected Nevada counties also would receive $5.4 million to monitor the nuclear waste project 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., a member of the committee, said.

The committee froze the Department of Energy's funding for Yucca Mountain work at this year's $358 million level. The DOE had requested an extra $15 million.

Reid and Sen. Richard Bryan, D-Nev., wrote to DOE Secretary Bill Richardson Friday supporting a plan for nuclear plants in New England to put high-level nuclear waste in dry cask storage on their own property, instead of waiting for a temporary storage area at the Nevada Test Site.

Congress has failed to override presidential vetoes of the temporary storage bills for the past two years. The president continues to threaten to veto any such legislation.

The budget contains $29 million for the Army Corps of Engineers to continue work to control flooding from Tropicana and Flamingo washes, which cut from west to east across the Las Vegas Valley.

Another $2 million would go to the Bureau of Reclamation for work in the Las Vegas Wash and Lake Mead, Southern Nevada's major source of drinking water. Of the total $300,000 would go to restoring the wetlands and $1.7 million to UNLV for water quality studies. Bacteria, pesticides and perchlorate, a rocket fuel booster produced at nearby industrial plants, have been discovered in the wash and pose a threat to drinking water.

The Nevada Test Site would receive $15 million to continue sub-critical experiments that do not create a nuclear chain reaction. Another $182 million would keep the Test Site ready to resume nuclear weapons experiments, if necessary.

The bill also contains $270,000 to study radiation effects on birds at the Nevada Test Site.