Funds for Yucca Mountain cut

LAS VEGAS — Nevada lawmakers helped beat back the latest effort to restart the licensing process necessary to build a nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain north of Las Vegas.

Democratic Rep. Dina Titus says the House Appropriations Committee rejected a Republican-led amendment Tuesday that would have reserved more than $70 million to keep the project alive.

She says it was the “latest attempt to force nuclear waste down Nevada’s throat.”

A House Appropriations subcommittee the week before had voted to keep funding for Yucca Mountain out of its $46.4 billion energy budget.

The spending measure could resurface when the Senate considers its version of the appropriations bill. But Titus said she’ll work with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Gov. Steve Sisolak and the rest of Nevada’s congressional delegation to make sure it doesn’t stick in the final version Congress will consider later this year.

Titus says Nevada doesn’t use nuclear energy, doesn’t produce nuclear waste and shouldn’t be forced to store it.