LAS VEGAS (AP) - A state official says last week's elections did nothing to change Nevada's staunch opposition to the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump in southern Nevada.

Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects Executive Director Bob Halstead says President Barack Obama's re-election and Democratic gains that strengthened Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's position have eased fears that the project could be resurrected.

He told the Las Vegas Review-Journal (http://bit.ly/TAnWD0 ) there were no changes in the state's congressional delegation or in the Legislature that sent a message that the state's opposition is weakening.

The Obama administration and Reid were instrumental in shutting down the nuclear waste repository site beginning in 2009. Obama's budgets since then have zeroed out funding, and Reid has blocked efforts in Congress to restore money to the project.

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