Commentary: Yucca is wrong for Nevada, even in hard times

Our state and our nation face unprecedented economic challenges that force us to confront harsh realities. As your elected representatives, we explore and consider all available options to solve the problems Nevada faces. Our duty to you requires not only commitment and a willingness to stand up for our state but also creativity in coming up with ways to meet our growing needs from shrinking resources.

The uncertainty caused by times like these is certainly understandable. There is one certainty, however, upon which we all agree: We will not consider the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump as a means of plugging our fingers in the holes of our state budget.

First, it is important to understand that, even if we were to consider a bad idea such as this, there is no offer on the table for Nevada to take a payoff for mortgaging our safety and our future. There are no waiting millions or billions of dollars in benefits for us to grab " the nuclear waste fund does not even have enough money to pay for a dump at Yucca. Any suggestion to the contrary is hypothetical and, frankly, misinformed.

President Barack Obama is committed to killing Yucca Mountain. The project is going away, and Nevada Democrats and Republicans continue to work together to ensure the safety of the Silver State. The project is dangerous, and Nevadans don't trust it because past heads of the Yucca project never treated our state fairly. They stole our water, and they continually disregarded our legitimate health and safety concerns. We're not in a position to negotiate.

Patching our budget with blood money also does nothing to address the larger concerns of our economy and our record unemployment rate. The dump would not be a sustainable job creator. Of course it would create some temporary jobs if it were ever licensed and received billions of dollars for construction. But the purpose of the dump is to abandon radioactive waste in Nevada, which requires very few long-term workers.

What will redefine our economy is smart development. Along with our governor and our state legislature, we all agree this begins with investment in the renewable energy industry. Development and production of our vast clean energy resources will create jobs and position Nevada to compete in a national and global economy.

We remain committed to working in concert with state elected officials to develop the best possible solutions to the serious problems making it harder for you to feed your family, stay in your house and pay for your prescription drugs. There is no price any of us would put on the well-being of our loved ones, and there is no price we will ever put on allowing the dumping of one of the most toxic substances known to man in our back yard. Nevada deserves better.

- John Ensign, R-Nev., and Harry Reid, D-Nev., are Nevada's representatives in the U.S. Senate.