WASHINGTON — After years of unwavering support for White House nuclear waste policies, Sen. Bob Bennett announced from the Senate floor Tuesday he has reversed course and no longer supports storing spent fuel rods deep underground at Yucca Mountain, Nev.

"I am making it clear that my support for Yucca Mountain . . . does no longer hold in the situation we find ourselves," Bennett said. "It makes sense for (nuclear) waste to be stored on site and to be shipped to a reprocessing center."

The Utah Republican has turned away from Yucca Mountain, both as a location and its deep underground waste storage approach. He said he has turned toward and will lend his unequivocal support to a proposal by Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., that all nuclear waste be left at the power plants creating it as the country develops a policy of reprocessing waste.

"Sen. Bennett succinctly and clearly outlined the reasons to oppose both the proposed Yucca Mountain and PFS facilities," Reid said. "The momentum is shifting and the timing is right to address our nuclear waste challenges in a way that offers real, long-term solutions. The safest, most reasonable and effective solution is to store nuclear waste where it is already being produced."

Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, said despite his continuing support of Yucca Mountain storage, he plans to introduce legislation this week calling for a study of waste reprocessing options and a review of safety and operation problems posed by storing waste at power plants and at existing U.S. Department of Energy facilities. Hatch sought to attach that language to an energy bill earlier this year.

"It is important that I keep working on all options to protect our state," Hatch said.

Hatch is facing an intraparty challenge in his re-election bid from Utah House Majority Whip Steve Urquhart, R-St. George, who said the senator is now "on the end of a very thin branch. He'll climb back to the trunk in a hurry."

Bennett's reversal comes days after the Nuclear Regulatory Commission voted to issue a license to Private Fuel Storage, a consortium of nuclear power utilities, to store spent fuel rods on Goshute tribal lands in Skull Valley, Tooele County.

The NRC decision clearly weighed on Bennett, who cited the risks of PFS to the Utah Test and Training Range, the nation's "last remaining" large land-based training range.

"More military facilities have been closed by encroachment than by BRAC," he said, referring to the nonpartisan commission that recommends to Congress and the White House which bases should be closed.