Oregon Public Broadcasting

Those pushing to get dangerous nuclear waste shipped out of the Northwest won a small victory Tuesday.

Nevada's Yucca Mountain is back on track again as nation's future nuclear waste repository. A federal panel has ruled in favor of Washington state's effort to keep the Nevada dump site alive.

The Obama administration had pulled the plug on Yucca Mountain. But a subcommittee within the Nuclear Regulatory Commission ruled Tuesday that the U.S. Department of Energy doesn't have that authority.

Washington Attorney General Rob McKenna expects this panel's decision to be appealed to the full Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Rob McKenna: "But it's important victory because it validates the arguments that we and other states have made. Which are that Congress has the authority to decide the future of this project -- that the Department of Energy and Administration do not have unilateral authority to cancel this project."

Nevada Democratic Senator Harry Reid issued a statement saying he's "disappointed" by the decision. He vowed to make sure in his words that Nevada "never becomes the nation's nuclear dumping ground."