WASHINGTON -- A Senate committee Wednesday announced an upcoming hearing on the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste project, allowing Sen. Hillary Clinton to claim credit for delivering on a presidential campaign promise made to Nevadans over the summer.

The Oct. 31 hearing will be the first Senate airing of the proposed waste repository since Democrats took control this year. The Environment and Public Works Committee that is organizing the session is headed by Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., a repository critic.

The hearing is likely to have political undercurrents as well.

Clinton, D-N.Y., sits on the committee and is expected to take part in the hearing. She has sought to position herself as the strongest voice against the unpopular Nevada program among Democrats running for president in advance of the state's party caucuses next January.

"Sen. Clinton has been working actively with the committee to schedule this hearing," said Rory Reid, Clark County commissioner and chairman of Clinton's campaign in Nevada. "No other candidate for president has stood as strongly on this issue as Sen. Clinton."

The hearing will likely provide Clinton and other repository opponents a fresh forum to criticize the controversial program. While it is being held in a Senate committee room, the intended audience members really are voters in Nevada, said Eric Herzik, a political scientist at the University of Nevada, Reno.

"It is possible that something substantive could come out of this, but Yucca Mountain has been discussed for more than 20 years and the sides are pretty well drawn," Herzik said. "This makes me think it will be more symbolic than substantive."

Committee aides and other Senate officials said witnesses are being invited and will be announced next week. The environment committee has jurisdiction over the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Environmental Protection Agency, so it is possible those agencies will be represented, officials said. One outstanding question is why the EPA is taking so long to issue required radiation safety standards for the project. Agency officials had promised Congress the standards would be released by the end of last year, and they now are 10 months late and counting.

Possibly project managers from the Energy Department and spokespeople for the environmental community also could be invited, they said. It was not clear whether Gov. Jim Gibbons is being invited to speak or to send a representative.

Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., said he has worked with Boxer to schedule the hearing "for the last few months. I am confident the information that comes out will shine a bright spotlight on the problems associated with this dangerous plan."

Most elected leaders in Nevada oppose the proposed repository that is being designed to hold 70,000 or more tons of highly radioactive used fuel from commercial power plants and other forms of nuclear waste. They say they consider the venture unsafe and have little trust in the Department of Energy to look after the health and safety of Nevadans.

Clinton has sought to portray herself as the state's biggest ally among presidential candidates.

If she wins, Clinton said, "I will not go forward with Yucca Mountain. My administration will not proceed with Yucca Mountain."

It was not clear Wednesday what role if any Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., Clinton's perceived main rival in Nevada for the Democratic nomination, would play in the hearing. "Senator Obama does not need hearings to know he does not support Yucca Mountain," an aide said. "To the extent this hearing will help raise public awareness, he supports it."

Rep. Jon Porter, R-Nev., said he challenged Clinton to try to kill the Yucca project outright.

"The Democrats are in charge and the Democrats have done nothing to kill the project," Porter said. "Why is she going to wait to see if she wins? If she is sincere, she has the authority now."

"This is precisely why she requested this hearing," said Hilarie Grey, Clinton's campaign spokeswoman in Nevada. "There are many public safety issues and health issues that have not been addressed, and she wants to be sure those questions are asked right now. Sen. Clinton has been a consistent opponent of Yucca Mountain."

Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., noted the hearing will take place on Nevada Day, the Oct. 31 anniversary of the state's admission to the Union in 1864.

"Nevada's flag reads 'Battle Born' and we will keep fighting Yucca Mountain and those -- like President Bush -- who want to see the Silver State turned into the nation's nuclear garbage dump," Berkley said.