The casinos have played a low-key but powerful role in keeping state and local leaders firmly opposed to Yucca Mountain. A Clark County Commission study in 2001 said that every one of 14 top gaming executives in the city opposed the Yucca Mountain project and warned of potentially serious loss of business if any kind of radioactive incident occurred.
"I am not worried until there is an accident," Alan M. Feldman, senior vice president at MGM Mirage, said in an interview. "When the accident does happen, it won't be small, it will not be short-term and it may be irreversible. Twenty years ago, the federal government made a terrible mistake."
Robert Stewart, senior vice president at Caesars Entertainment, said: "You would be hard pressed to find anybody in the gaming industry who is not opposed to siting a nuclear dump at Yucca Mountain."
Although Nevada brings a lot to the battle, it gets little outside help. Except for in California, other western political leaders, such as Domenici, have supported the dump. And many Democrats see the dump as a solution to their own environmental problems with nuclear waste.
In a key procedural vote in 2002, 16 Senate Democrats voted for the dump, including Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan, Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina and Sen. Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico.
The 2002 vote was taken to override a veto of the dump issued by Guinn, Nevada's Republican governor, a procedure set up under federal law. Reid said he knew he did not have the votes to block the veto, but that was before the soft-spoken parliamentary expert became Senate minority leader.
Now, even Republicans acknowledge that Reid has the votes and the political acumen to block Yucca Mountain legislation. It is one reason the Bush administration has not attempted to get legislation to nullify last year's court setback to the dump.
"Putting Harry there is like a human stop sign," said Feldman, the casino executive.
Ironically, Yucca Mountain has attracted only sporadic interest from major national environmental groups, according to the grass-roots organizations in Nevada fighting the project.
Judy Treichel, executive director of the Nevada Nuclear Waste Task Force, said she had never received money from major East Coast nonprofit foundations that often fund environmental battles. Treichel runs her organization from her condo behind the flashing marquee of the Rio casino, just off the Strip. She raises about $30,000 annually for the effort.
