LAS VEGAS — The federal government's campaign to put a nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain in Nevada is in trouble, having encountered political and legal setbacks during the last year that have raised questions about when and even if the project will go forward.
The state has stunned federal officials with its tenacity, legal skill and evolving political acumen, scoring key victories in federal court and in Congress that have repeatedly stalled the project 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
When Congress selected Nevada in the 1980s as the proposed dump site for 70,000 metric tons of highly radioactive waste, the state lacked the political clout and economic power to stop the effort -- one of the most scientifically complex and costly engineering projects in history.
But what Congress could not have foreseen was the huge economic, demographic and political changes that would sweep over Nevada and particularly Las Vegas, now the nation's fastest growing city and an economic juggernaut in the Southwest. The changes have made the state a more effective and powerful opponent than anybody anticipated.
Opposition has come from every level of Nevada government: Local utility managers turned off the federal project's water supply. Gov. Kenny Guinn issued a veto of the project. Atty. Gen. Brian Sandoval has tied up the project in the courts. Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman threatened to arrest anybody carrying out the plan on his turf.
But the most prominent symbol of the state's growing power is Sen. Harry Reid, selected late last year as Senate minority leader and an ardent opponent of the dump. Reid has impressed even his critics with political maneuvers that have eviscerated the Energy Department's budget for Yucca Mountain.
"The Department of Energy has no credibility here in the state of Nevada," Reid said in a recent interview.
In late November, Reid engineered the appointment of Greg Jaczko to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which is in charge of licensing the nuclear dump. To broker the deal on Jaczko, a physicist on Reid's staff, the senator held up a number of Bush administration nominations.
"We have thrown up everything humanly possible to block Yucca Mountain, but Harry Reid is going to be the difference now," said Billy Vassiliadis, a top political operative in Nevada who has produced the advertising for the state's tourism and gaming industry.
