The Dept. of Energy has transmitted its application seeking Nuclear Regulatory Commission approval to build a nuclear-waste repository beneath Nevada’s Yucca Mountain. But Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), a longtime foe of the project, called DOE’s application “shoddy at best” and said he would continue to work with others in the state’s congressional delegation “to kill the dump.”

The planned repository, detailed in DOE’s 8,600-page application sent to NRC on June 3, would hold waste now stored at 121 temporary sites in 39 states. The NRC review is expected to take place over three years. DOE pegs total project costs at $57.5 billion, according to its most recent estimate, in 2001. DOE says about $9 billion has been spent so far.