Reuters seemed to be confused between nuclear energy and nuclear weapons.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051114/ap_on_go_co/congress_spending;_ylt=AsIprgGXChTAoQHUDX5LX9ayFz4D;_ylu=X3oDMTA5aHJvMDdwBHNlYwN5bmNhdA-- The $450 million Yucca Mountain budget — down $127 million from each of the last two years — is included in a final bill funding energy and water programs for fiscal 2006, which cleared the Senate by an 84-4 vote. Senate negotiators immediately headed to a House meeting room for talks on two other bills.
The urgency comes as lawmakers try to wrap up work on the 11 spending bills comprising the approximately one-third of the federal budget that Congress passes each year. After years of consistent increases, the overall budget for domestic agencies — with the exception of the
Homeland Security Department — is essentially frozen or even slightly below last year's levels.
The Senate vote clears the sixth of 11 spending bills for
President Bush's signature. Lawmakers hope to complete action on remaining domestic bills by Friday, when a bill funding agency budgets on a stopgap basis expires. The temporary funding bill has been in place since the budget year began Oct. 1.
...
The bill also kills off a program to study and develop a "bunker buster" nuclear warhead, ending a three-year battle between the Pentagon and lawmakers opposed to the project. Opponents have argued it would send the wrong nuclear nonproliferation message to the world. Instead the administration plans to pursue a conventional weapon that can penetrate hardened underground targets.