WASHINGTON -- Nevada and Utah lawmakers sought to spark new debate over nuclear waste storage in their states by introducing bills Wednesday that would force the Energy Department to keep radioactive spent fuel stockpiled at power plants.

Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., a main sponsor, said the measures would stoke discussions about alternatives to the planned repository at Yucca Mountain, which has been set back by legal and technical questions since it won endorsement from President Bush and Congress in 2002.

"We have to move past Yucca Mountain," said Reid, a leading critic of the nuclear dump plan. "We believe there is an opportunity to change the direction of this government as it relates to the storage of nuclear waste."

The bills submitted in the Senate and House drew immediate opposition from the Department of Energy and from coalitions of nuclear utilities and regulators in states that have nuclear power plants and want to get rid of the waste they generate.

More than 40,000 metric tons of highly radioactive waste generated by 103 commercial nuclear plants are kept in pools and dry storage at reactor sites in 35 states.

Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., a co-sponsor of the measure introduced Wednesday, said he doubted Yucca critics could win a vote outright in the Senate now, where most senators remain supportive of the repository.

Rather, he said, the bills' purpose is to sow doubts about Yucca Mountain and promote alternatives like on-site storage or waste reprocessing.

"We keep chipping away at this, and then people will think that is the reality," Ensign said.

Critics said they expect the bill will get an airing because of Reid's position as Senate minority leader. But, they said, the Nevadans are recycling arguments they advanced and lost three years ago.

"Reid's strategy for the last few years has been to leave the fuel on-site, which was an argument he was making during the 2002 debate," said Terry Freese, director of legislative programs for the Nuclear Energy Institute, the industry's main trade organization.

Freese said Reid has added "new spin" by requiring the waste to be placed in dry cask storage, but his bill raises questions about costs and how the waste would be monitored and regulated.

"We have consistently held (that) the federal government needs to move used fuel off-site and to take responsibility for its permanent disposal," Freese said.

The bill requires nuclear utilities to move spent fuel into above-ground steel and concrete reinforced casks within six years after it is removed from reactors and placed in cooling pools.

The Energy Department would take ownership title of the waste and assume responsibility for managing it.

Money for the effort would be drawn from a utility-funded nuclear waste account, and that's another provision of the bill that drew criticism from industry executives.

DOE spokesman Craig Stevens said the measure was merely "kicking the can down the road.

"This bill in no way resolves the issue of permanent storage of spent nuclear fuel," Stevens said. "We continue to use sound science in our mission to get Yucca Mountain licensed and eventually opened."

Reid began promoting the so-called "take title" bill more than a year ago, but held off submitting it formally until now.

Congress is expected to recess at the end of the week and reconvene in January.

"I think I have support for this now," Reid said, without elaborating.

As introduced, the bill was co-sponsored by Ensign and Sen. Orrin Hatch and Sen. Robert Bennett, both R-Utah. Hatch and Bennett are opposing a short-term nuclear waste site the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has agreed to license on the Goshute Indian Reservation, west of Salt Lake City.

Senate sources said Reid is trying to persuade Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee chairman Pete Domenici, R-N.M., to sign on in support of his bill. That would provide a boost because Domenici is highly influential on nuclear power matters.

Reid and Domenici reportedly were talking during the fall about collaborating on nuclear waste legislation that would combine Reid's on-site storage approach with a waste reprocessing initiative favored by Domenici.

Congress passed Domenici-crafted legislation in November directing the Energy Department to step up efforts to identify a favored nuclear waste reprocessing technology and possible locations for a reprocessing factory.

Domenici could not be reached for comment; but spokeswoman Marnie Funk said he did not plan to comment on the legislation introduced Wednesday.

A similar bill was introduced in the House by Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, and Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev. Rep. Jim Gibbons and Rep. Jon Porter, both R-Nev., and Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, were co-sponsors.