House panel OKs $2.5 million for state oversight of Yucca

LAS VEGAS - A House Appropriations Committee has restored $2.5 million in federal oversight money for the state to supervise the Yucca Mountain project.

The measure must still go to the full House and then to the U.S. Senate for approval.

Republican Gov. Kenny Guinn said the funding, if approved, is an example of a bipartisan effort by him and Democratic Sen. Harry Reid to secure the funding.

It was federal money the state hasn't received for five years, Guinn said.

Nearly four months ago, Reid suggested Guinn dump the state's leading nuclear waste bureaucrat Bob Loux.

House Republicans, Reid said, were angry with how Loux had spent funds earlier and were preventing Nevada from getting federal oversight money for the Yucca Mountain project, which would be a repository for the nation's nuclear waste. Nevada leaders are united in their opposition to the project and have worked to prevent it from being located in the state.

A 1998 congressional audit concluded that Loux's agency misspent $691,835 in federal funds from 1992 through 1995. House Republicans charged that Loux used the money for propaganda against the proposed nuclear repository, which would be 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas, rather than for scientific oversight.

Guinn stuck by Loux, executive director of the Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects, lobbied Republicans in Congress, and got the money.

The compromise made by Guinn is that the money won't go to Loux's office but will go to the state's Emergency Management Division, under Chief Frank Siracusa.

Loux, who oversees an annual budget of $1.9 million, said his office will continue to deal with transportation and socio-economic issues, as well as health and safety standard issues.

Guinn called the effort ''a good compromise'' and an example of a bipartisan effort by him and Reid paying off.

Reid was equally positive about Guinn. ''I'm as happy as a lark and proud of Kenny for doing it,'' the senator said from Washington, D.C.

Guinn said by obtaining the federal money, $500,000 to $800,000 in state money that has been going to the Nuclear Projects Agency each year can be freed up for other needs.

He reaffirmed that he has no intention of replacing Loux, who was first appointed by former Democratic Gov. Richard Bryan in 1983.

If the money is approved as expected, Guinn said, it means Nevada can independently oversee the scientific evaluation of the Yucca Mountain project and not depend on the Department of Energy's evaluations.

''Since we feel science is on our side in this critical debate, this is certainly a victory for Nevada,'' Guinn said.