WASHINGTON -- Mindful of the powers wielded by new Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, the leading nuclear industry association does not plan to push Congress for bills this year to speed waste disposal at Yucca Mountain, the group's chief lobbyist said Tuesday.

"We are frustrated by the schedule. The Department of Energy is way behind," said Alex Flint, senior vice president of government affairs at the Nuclear Energy Institute.

"But we also are respectful and realistic of the influence of Sen. Reid," Flint said at an NEI conference for industry executives. "It is going to be extremely hard to use legislation to accelerate the schedule at Yucca Mountain" because Reid has "extraordinary authority."

Speaking to reporters later, Flint added, "A fight with Senator Reid right now is not in our best interests" because NEI also wants to nurture policies that encourage new nuclear plant construction.

Flint told industry officials NEI will work to get the Energy Department enough money from Congress to meet a June 30, 2008, application deadline for a Yucca Mountain repository, the latest goal for a project that missed a 1998 opening and other deadlines since then.

"Our eggs are in that basket," Flint said.

Speaking later at the conference, a Department of Energy official hinted that DOE's latest repository effort could be its last if it fails to meet the latest application deadline.

"We need to deliver by 2008 or else there will be a substantial restructuring of the program, and perhaps a new direction," said Christopher Kouts, a senior manager in the Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management. "My sense is that we will deliver."

Kouts said afterwards he did not know how the repository project might be changed if DOE falls short.

"I just think that everybody knows we need to deliver this time, and that is what we are driving very hard to do," Kouts said. "I do think that people are very impatient with the program, and we need to deliver, that is the bottom line."

In his presentation, Flint provided a glimpse of NEI's efforts in the Democrat-controlled Congress.

Flint said NEI lobbyists are expanding outreach to Democrats and to junior members of Congress. He said he was encouraged that most lawmakers generally have become accepting of nuclear power.

"Congress has become de facto neutral on issues affecting our industry," Flint said.

For instance, Flint said afterwards there may not be enough votes in Congress to speed Yucca Mountain, but on the other hand, there are not enough votes to repeal the 1982 nuclear waste law that underpins the project.

"So the federal policy and the federal program will continue indefinitely until there is an agreement on some other course, and I don't know if there is a consensus on another course," Flint said.

As Senate majority leader, Reid has said bills that would help the Energy Department obtain permits and accelerate spending for Yucca Mountain will not be brought up for votes.

Nonetheless, Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, has said he and Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., plan to reintroduce a bill that would allow military nuclear waste to be shipped to Yucca Mountain starting in 2010 and commercial spent fuel to be stored there in above-ground casks in 2011.

DOE officials have said their plans don't call for nuclear waste to arrive at Yucca Mountain, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas, until 2017 at the earliest, and probably three or more years later.