July 8, 2008

Washington, D.C. – Nevada Senator Harry Reid today released the following statement regarding funding cuts to the Yucca Mountain project this year. The announcement was made today during the Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development appropriations mark-up that Yucca Mountain would be funded at last year’s level of $386 million:

“It was no simple task to cut $109 million – 22 percent – of the $495 million budget requested by the President, but it will surely cripple the progress the Energy Department wants to make on turning our state into the nation’s nuclear waste dump. At this level of funding, it’s impossible for Yucca Mountain to ever become a reality.

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