Federal budget plan calls for limited Yucca Mountain spending

LAS VEGAS - A federal budget plan set for consideration next week in the Senate would limit spending next year on a proposed nuclear waste repository in southern Nevada.

The budget blueprint calls for Congress to spend $577 million on the Yucca Mountain Project, $303 million less than the Department of Energy had requested, said Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev.

Lawmakers set aside $580 million this year for Yucca Mountain, located 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

"The DOE wanted a very high level of funding next year, and we tried to do everything in the Budget Committee we can to cut the funding," Ensign told the Las Vegas Review-Journal for a Saturday report.

The budget blueprint serves to guide lawmakers when they craft legislation later this year that will set the actual spending amounts for federal programs.

"Considering how tight the rest of the budget is, (the Yucca Mountain Project) will not be able to have any more money," said Ensign, who opposes the project along with most of Nevada's elected leaders.

The Senate Budget Committee completed its blueprint Thursday, sending the plan to the Senate floor for votes next week. Ensign, who sits on the panel, negotiated the figures for nuclear waste spending with committee leaders.

Ensign said he also persuaded Budget Committee Chairman Don Nickles, R-Okla., to remove accounting changes sought by the Bush administration that would have eased annual spending battles concerning Yucca Mountain.

"That had no chance," Ensign said. "I went to Nickles, and he knew that was not going to happen."

Energy Department spokesman Allen Benson declined Friday to discuss the possible implications of the Senate action.

"The administration has submitted a budget request for nuclear waste management," he said. "That budget will enable us to move ahead with the program."