WASHINGTON -- Political support for the Yucca Mountain nuclear repository eroded further on Wednesday when a leading Senate advocate of nuclear power said it has become "foolhardy" to continue plans to store radioactive used power plant fuel at the Nevada site.

Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., said the strategy to place spent nuclear fuel underground has become badly outdated in light of advances in waste reprocessing that could wring more energy from the assemblies.

Even after nuclear fuel has been recycled, the resulting waste products may not need to be placed in the Nevada volcanic ridge, he said. At that point, the waste would be less toxic and could be stored safely in salt formations in New Mexico or elsewhere.

"The current strategy of limiting our options to a permanent repository for the disposal of spent fuel is deeply flawed," Domenici said. He said he was writing a bill that would alter the "Yucca only" approach. "I'm talking about a bill that will start over and draft new law that puts America on a new path for commercial waste," he said after a Senate Energy and Water Subcommittee hearing on the Yucca Mountain budget.

The senator's comments are reflective of a shift among key lawmakers frustrated by a decade-long delay in developing the Yucca Mountain repository, and who now are more amenable to alternatives they say are becoming more viable.

In the meantime, the Department of Energy continues to work toward licensing and building the site to handle 77,000 tons of waste generated by the government and commercial utilities.

At the hearing, senators praised DOE nuclear waste Director Ward Sproat, saying he has put the Yucca program finally on a track.

But Domenici, a 35-year Senate veteran who has written a book on nuclear policy and authored key bills promoting the technology, said it may be too late.

"I am not saying that Yucca should go away, but I am saying you don't need Yucca" for managing power plant fuel, he said. "It would never have been the direct policy of the country for Yucca if you were going to have recycling like we have been talking about.

"I want to make it very clear that I would not stop Yucca flat now. I wouldn't just say 'cut it off,' because it may be used for something."

Other uses might include burial of waste from Navy ship reactors, other military nuclear waste and other highly radioactive material that cannot be recycled.

Domenici said he was writing a bill that would divert a portion of the nuclear waste fund being set aside to build Yucca Mountain. Some of the funds in the account that now totals $21 billion would be steered to finding and developing reprocessing sites and temporary nuclear fuel storage nearby.

The bill would direct the Department of Energy to negotiate with interested communities.

Domenici is retiring from the Senate at the end of the year, and was uncertain whether his bill will go anywhere. He said he is shopping it to senators and influential members of the House.

"This one I am really going big on," he said. "I don't know whether we can get this done while I am still a senator ... but I want to lay down at least a cornerstone to what I think is absolutely imperative."