WASHINGTON -- Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., sought to strengthen ties Tuesday to a new ally in the campaign against Nevada nuclear waste disposal.

Reid said he will no longer stand in the way of Utah lawmakers who are trying to block a nuclear waste complex on the Goshute Indian reservation in their state by having the nearby area designated government-protected wilderness.

Reid's announcement came several weeks after Sen. Robert Bennett, R-Utah, pledged in a Senate speech that he was withdrawing his support for the nuclear waste repository the Department of Energy wants to build at Yucca Mountain in Nevada.

Bennett said he now favored keeping highly radioactive spent nuclear fuel stored at power plants -- a concept that Reid has promoted.

Bennett said Tuesday his speech helped build a new alliance with Reid.

"Sen. Reid and I have been taking about this over a period of time," Bennett said. "He and I are pretty much on the same page now where we ought to go. Neither one of us is opposed to nuclear power, neither one of us thinks a single national repository makes sense and both of us are interested in some kind of (waste) reprocessing."

Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, said Bennett's speech "helped bring (Reid) along."

Tessa Hafen, a Reid spokeswoman, said Bennett's overture was a factor in Reid's decision to withdraw his opposition to the wilderness proposal, which the Utah senators are trying to add to a defense policy bill.

Reid had argued that carving out protected wilderness through defense legislation would set a bad precedent.

But in a statement Tuesday Reid said prospects of nuclear waste storage in Utah now poses a greater threat.

"With the proposed Goshute nuclear waste site moving forward, timing has become critical and the state of Utah will need every available resource to fight this project," Reid said.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has approved plans by Private Fuel Storage, a utility consortium, to store 44,000 tons of nuclear spent fuel on the Goshute Indian Reservation in Tooele County.

Reid's change of heart is the latest turn in what has been a sometimes rocky relationship between senators of neighboring states that are each trying to fight off nuclear waste.

Some Utah officials have accused Reid of holding a grudge dating back to 2002, when Hatch and Bennett voted in favor of designating Yucca Mountain for a nuclear waste repository.

Hatch said Tuesday that may have been the case, but relations have improved. Hafen maintained the 2002 episode has not influenced Reid's activities on nuclear waste.

Even with Reid stepping aside, the Utah wilderness plan faces an uphill climb, Bennett and Hatch said Tuesday.

Other senators remain opposed, including Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev.

"I will be blocking that vehemently," Ensign said.

Ensign said he wants to keep pressure on the Utah senators.