The high-stakes nuclear debate set to come before the Senate this month could leave Mitt Romney caught between his party's support for the Yucca Mountain waste dump and his bid to win the swing state of Nevada in November. The presumptive GOP presidential nominee said last year that residents of Nevada, where deep-rooted opposition has made Yucca the third rail of Silver State politics, "should have the final say" on the desert site once marked as a future home for U.S. nuclear waste. But many Republicans want to see President Obama restart work on Yucca, and Senate hearings on two Nuclear Regulatory Commission nominees are likely to hand them a megaphone -- whether Romney likes it or not. Go to story #1

The chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee is circulating draft legislation that could untangle a political knot blocking the permanent disposal and storage of hot, radioactive nuclear waste piling up across the country, a Democratic aide said Friday. Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) has been meeting for months with key senators to tackle a long-running debate over where and how the United States should bury its nuclear waste. Go to story #2