Joined by many environmentalist groups, Nevada Senator Harry Reid came out against a plan to store the nation's nuclear waste in a subterranean repository in Yucca Mountain, near Death Valley in his home state. Critics of the measure have pressed for a guarantee that people settling in the desolate, arid region 10,000 years from now would be able to drink from local well water without being exposed to the same level of radiation over the course of a year that people currently receive when flying in an airliner for twelve minutes.

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