It appears the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump is dead. President Obama’s new budget states that the Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Repository project “will be scaled back to those costs necessary to answer inquiries from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission while the administration devises a new strategy toward nuclear waste disposal.”

Declaring victory, Nevada Senator Harry Reid reported on his website: “Today was an extremely important day in our fight against the proposed nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain. In his budget request for 2010, President Obama will announce plans to devise a new strategy to find another solution to deal with the nation’s nuclear waste that does not include storing it in Nevada.”