WASHINGTON -- Congress is taking another deep bite out of Yucca Mountain spending in a final budget bill it plans to pass this week, raising the possibility of even more delays in the government's bid for a nuclear waste site in Nevada.

Energy Department officials could not immediately detail the possible impacts to the planned repository from a 22 percent cut in the bill that was made public Monday.

The project's director, Ward Sproat, said last week that deep cuts could cause DOE to rethink its once inviolate goal of filing a repository license application by the end of next June, which would be a big step forward for the often troubled effort.

While President Bush budgeted Yucca for $494.5 million in fiscal 2008, lawmakers allocated no more than $386.5 million in a year-end wrapup bill that would keep the government funded through next September, according to the office of Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev.

Sproat said last week a $100 million reduction "would be very serious," but he could not detail what the outcome could be.

The spending bill, which was scheduled for vote Monday night in the House and later this week in the Senate, marked the 13th consecutive year that Congress has reduced a president's budget for the Yucca project.

In that period, repository spending has been reduced a combined $1.3 billion. DOE officials have blamed underfunding for missed deadlines and near-constant scrambling to set new priorities for segments of the complex science and transportation program.

On the other hand, critics of Yucca Mountain on Monday cheered the latest whacking, including Reid, who has used his influence to slow the project and did so again this year.

"I am proud that I was successful in cutting from Yucca's budget," Reid said in a statement. "It is clear that the Yucca Mountain Project is a dying beast, and I hope that this cut in funding will help drive the final nail into its coffin."

"This is another battle we have won, but we still have a war to fight toward killing it once and for all," said Rep. Jon Porter, R-Nev.

"The White House is in a mad rush to move forward on the license for Yucca Mountain by next summer, regardless of the danger, and I hope this cut will slow their reckless drive," said Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev.

DOE officials say a 7,000-page licensing package it plans to submit to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission should show the repository could be operated safely.

Fights over funding only serve to delay safety reviews of the Yucca project, said Martez Norris, executive director of the Nuclear Waste Strategy Coalition.

In the meantime, electricity ratepayers continue to pay $750 million annually into a special repository construction fund that has not been fully tapped.

"We are disappointed this program is not being protected," said Norris, whose group consists of power company executives and utility officials in states where nuclear waste is stored at present. "Members of Congress whose ratepayers are paying into the fund are not protecting their states. That waste is going to stay stranded in their states."