Regulators Taking Comment in Vegas about Yucca Mountain

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Federal regulators are hosting a key meeting in Las Vegas about whether the long-stalled Yucca Mountain national nuclear waste dump project should be restarted in Nevada.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is collecting comment beginning at 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Embassy Suites conference center near the Las Vegas Convention Center on a recent groundwater study.

It finds a small chance that radioactive contamination could get into the environment.

Another NRC meeting is scheduled Thursday at the Amargosa Community Center in the Nye County farming town closest to the Yucca Mountain site.

Nevada state officials have long opposed the nuclear repository, which was first proposed in 1982.

But some elected representatives now say the state could negotiate for economic benefits in return for entombing the nation's most dangerous waste.