Reid: If I’m around Yucca nuclear dump will stay dead

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said as long as he’s around there will be no nuclear waste dump in Nevada.

But as November draws closer, and Republicans weigh their chances of gaining a majority in the Senate, the party is talking about reviving the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste site, which the administration stopped work on.

{mosads}To guard against such action, Reid pushed fast votes on two administration nominees to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, ensuring the majority of those sitting on the board have been appointed by Democrats.

“Yucca Mountain is all through,” Reid told reporters on Tuesday. “As long as I’m around there’s no Yucca Mountain. It’s been through two presidents.”

“Clinton opposed it. Obama opposed it. The place is mothballed out there. It’s all through,” he added.

Last week Rep. Fred Upton (R-Ky.) admitted that Reid was the main hurdle for Republicans to get the project moving again.

“We knew Mr. Reid being majority leader, it wasn’t going to see the light of day,” Upton told reporters.

If the Senate flips, Upton said, then Yucca is a “priority” for Republicans.