Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., campaigned in Pahrump Sunday evening, giving local residents a chance to find out just where the candidate stands on local and federal issues.

It wasn't surprising that one of the questions for the senator concerned his stance on Yucca Mountain, the proposed federal nuclear waste repository.

Obama flatly stated his opposition to the project. "I want a project that is based on sound science," he said. "And frankly, I think that we have to think about, are we really going to store all our nuclear waste at one single facility in one state, which may not seem very fair to people who live in that state?"

He qualified the statement by saying his energy policy does not discount any source of energy, but he emphasized the need for energy to be clean.

"If somebody comes up with a clean coal emission strategy, then we should use it," the senator explained. "We have a lot of coal here. We could be the Saudi Arabia of coal, if it's clean to use it. And my attitude is the same when it comes to nuclear energy."

He also acknowledged the necessity of nuclear power plants.

"I don't think coal or nuclear are the best energy strategies over the long term," Obama added. "But let's be realistic. If we took all our nuclear plants off that table, nobody would have any energy. So we're going to have to transition."

As long as nuclear energy could be clean, the senator said, it was a viable option to consider.

"Nuclear is bad because we don't know how to store it," Obama said. "And it poses security hazards. If we solve those technical problems, if we had a failsafe way of storing the waste and we knew it was secure, why wouldn't we want nuclear?"

He went on to reiterate his plan to invest in researching and developing sources of renewable energy, as well as having tighter emission standards on power plants.

"In case I'm mistaken, there's a lot of sunlight out here," the senator had quipped earlier, adding, "It makes no sense for us to keep buying foreign oil when we have the capacity and ingenuity to create our energy."

Obama also offered a tempered response about illegal immigrants.

His solution is to strengthen law enforcement along the borders and have more severe punishment for employers who hired undocumented workers.

In addition, the senator proposed working with Mexico and Central America to improve their economies so illegal immigrants don't have to cross the border to find work.

But, Obama added, "It's not going to be perfect. The notion that we're just going to ship them all back, that's just not true. And when people say that, they're just not telling the truth."

He added, "Just as a practical matter we would have to use all of our law enforcement resources, every sheriff, every marshal, every cop, we would have to send them to go look for undocumented workers.

He joked that law enforcement would have to search for them "in meat packing plants, in restaurants, and on Mitt Romney's lawn."