Sunday, Aug. 2, 2009 | 2:06 a.m.
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It is premature to say that the long battle against Yucca Mountain has ended in victory for Nevada, but it is safe to say a turning point in the state’s favor makes ultimate victory more assured.
The turning point came Wednesday with an agreement among Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, the White House and Energy Secretary Steven Chu. They agreed the budget for getting Yucca Mountain federally licensed as a burial site for the nation’s high-level nuclear waste should be significantly reduced.
On Thursday Reid announced that the White House, in keeping with President Barack Obama’s campaign promises to Nevada, had decided to propose no funding whatsoever in the fiscal-year 2011 budget for the license application.
“This is a major victory for Nevada,” said Reid, who has led Nevada’s fight against Yucca for more than 20 years. He was right. If there is no licensing budget, the Yucca Mountain project, barely moving after two decades of disclosures from Nevada about its multiple dangers, comes to a stop.
In anticipation of this, Obama is planning to appoint a blue-ribbon commission to recommend a safer alternative to Yucca Mountain.
The issue began in 1987 when Congress approved the “Screw Nevada” bill, which named Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, as the only site that would be considered as the burial ground for deadly radioactive waste from the nation’s nuclear plants.
Nevada had little clout on the national level at the time. That began to change as Reid, elected to the Senate in 1986, steadily advanced in its ranks. He became minority leader in 2005 and became majority leader after Democrats gained control following the 2006 general election.
After years of fighting against congressional Republicans who support Yucca Mountain, and after fighting the Bush administration, which gave the Energy Department the go-ahead to construct the project, Nevada is prevailing, but it has not yet won.
The state will need the clout of Reid in the coming years to finish the job.
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