Nevada files lawsuit over Yucca N-waste plan

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Nevada filed a new constitutional challenge Thursday to the government's plan to bury the nation's nuclear waste under a mountain 90 miles from Las Vegas.

The lawsuit is the sixth lodged by the state against the Yucca Mountain project.

"The national government lacks the power to require a sovereign state to singularly bear the burden, and thereby relieve all other states from bearing any burden," the lawsuit alleges.

President Bush and Congress last year overrode Nevada's opposition and a veto by Gov. Kenny Guinn to approve the Energy Department's plan to entomb 77,000 tons of radioactive waste at the edge of the Nevada Test Site.

The new lawsuit was filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., on behalf of the state of Nevada, Clark County and the city of Las Vegas. It asks a judge to declare approval for the Yucca Mountain project unconstitutional and to halt all development and licensing work.

Allen Benson, an Energy Department spokesman, downplayed the lawsuit. "It's beginning to feel like another day, another Yucca Mountain lawsuit," he said.