$10 million approved to continue fighting Yucca

By David McGrath Schwartz

Published Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2009 | 12:33 p.m.

Updated Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2009 | 4:01 p.m.

A state board approved spending $10 million during the next two years to continue the battle over Yucca Mountain, despite Congress and President Barack Obama slashing funding to pursue the proposed nuclear waste repository 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

Senior Deputy Attorney General Marta Adams said Yucca Mountain is "not dead yet."

Gov. Jim Gibbons raised the issue of the contract because, he said, media reports indicated that the project was killed.

He said the law firm of Egan Fitzpatrick and Malsch, has, since 2002, received $27 million from state and federal money to represent Nevada in its fight against Yucca Mountain.

"Why pay $10 million more if the project is dead," Gibbons asked, taking a shot at President Barack Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who have promised to kill the project.

"We're hoping for the best," Adams responded. "There's still another shoe to drop."

She said that until the U.S. Department of Energy withdraws its license application or the application is rejected by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the federal process is moving forward and the state has to continue to fight.

"The NRC (Nuclear Regulatory Agency) is not aware it's dead," she said.

She did note that without funding, the federal governments push for the location is crippled.

"Federal agencies can't function without funding," she said.

Gibbons, as well as Secretary of State Ross Miller and Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto, who make up the Board of Examiners, approved the contract.

"We have a great deal of hope the process is dead," Gibbons said.

Masto said if the project is finally killed, the state would not be on the hook for the $10 million. The $10 million is federal money.

Jon Summers, a spokesman for Reid, said in a statement, "It's unfortunate the governor doesn't seem to understand that pro-Yucca forces are still trying to make Nevada the nation's nuclear dumping ground and that the state needs to fight on all fronts."