Senate panel rejects effort to continue funding nuclear waste site at Yucca Mountain

Panel rebuffs effort to fund Yucca Mountain site

WASHINGTON — Lawmakers who support a nuclear waste repository under Nevada’s Yucca Mountain continue to fall short of finding additional money for the project.

The Obama administration and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid favor scrapping the Yucca Mountain site, and the president’s budget for next year provides no funding for it.

But Democratic Sen. Patty Murray of Washington state says the administration has failed to provide valid scientific reasons for doing away with the repository.

Murray proposed on Thursday spending $200 million on developing the application needed to construct the storage site, but her efforts were defeated largely along party lines during a Senate committee hearing.