MARK WAITE / PVT Brien and Jerrie Rainville and Paul and Martha Wroblas, visitors from Oregon, look over exhibits at the Yucca Mountain Information Center before it closes. Advertisement

The Yucca Mountain Information Center on Postal Drive closed to the public Tuesday, due to budget cuts.

The closure came only two years and two months after the 50,000-square-foot building opened in July 2006.

The center offered exhibits including fuel rods that will be similar to the assemblies used to ship the nuclear waste, a one-third size replica of the tunnel boring machine, an eight minute video on the Yucca Mountain Project, along with examples of local geology and cultural artifacts.

"We originally had three information offices, Las Vegas, Beatty and Pahrump. For budgetary reasons we had to close Las Vegas and Beatty, and now for budgetary reasons we are forced to close the Pahrump information center," said Allen Benson, director of the office of external affairs for the U.S. Department of Energy.

The DOE will continue to pay $130,000 annually to lease the building but contractor Bechtel SAIC won't have an employee on hand to explain the exhibits, Benson said. Claire Sinclair, a DOE public affairs specialist, will continue to have her office in the back half of the building.

"If we get more money we can hire somebody to staff it," Benson said.

U.S. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., this week took credit for the passage of a continuing resolution to fund government through March 2009 that froze Yucca Mountain funding at $108 million below the president's request. Benson said that cutback was directly related to the closure of the center.

Copies of Yucca Mountain documents can still be viewed at the public library in Pahrump, Beatty and Amargosa Valley. The public can also view documents at the Nye County Nuclear Waste Repository Office on East Basin Avenue.

Two wintering couples from Oregon were the last visitors before closing time at 4 p.m. Tuesday. Brien Rainville said they were looking for information on things to do around Pahrump.

Benson said the first year, from July 1, 2006, to July 1, 2007, there were 1,200 visitors to the information center. In the year ending June 3, the number dropped to 595 visitors.

"It had all kinds of exhibits there. We're very proud of that facility. We're very sorry to see it close, but again it's a budget issue," Benson said.