Nye County will join with three western Nevada counties to fund a study of the Mina route to Yucca Mountain.

Nye County commissioners Tuesday approved funding $49,000 of the $100,000 study to investigate transportation affects on that route, from the existing rail line just south of Hawthorne to Yucca Mountain.

Nye County is funding 49 percent of the cost, Esmeralda, Mineral and Churchill counties will each be responsible for 17 percent of the cost.

Nye County endorsed the Mina route in comments to the Yucca Mountain environmental impact statement on the rail alignment.

Nye County officials feel the Mina route would be a shorter alignment that could be used by more industries than the Caliente route, which travels through a more remote area.

The U.S. Department of Energy agreed to study the Mina route but selected the Caliente corridor as the preferred route. Nye County's summary notes the DOE selected the Caliente corridor as the most politically expedient route or path of least resistance.

The main stumbling block to the Mina route has been the tribal council on the Walker River Indian reservation which voiced opposition to the rail shipments, which would travel near the reservation town of Schurz, north of Hawthorne.

A summary of the four-county plan said Curtis Millsap, a retired U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs official, would be hired to pursue transportation commitments minimizing interference with commercial traffic on Highway 95 and a rail route.