For all political and practical purposes, the Yucca Mountain Project is broken beyond repair.

The federal government and the nuclear energy industry have toiled for two decades to open a high-level nuclear waste repository about 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas. Lawyers have punched holes in environmental standards, and audit after audit has revealed glaring flaws in the scientific models created to demonstrate the project's long-term viability. After spending about $8 billion in taxpayer money over that period, all the Department of Energy has to show for its effort is a big, empty tunnel in the side of a ridge.

The nuclear energy industry is desperate to send the waste piling up at commercial reactor sites around the country somewhere, anywhere. That Nevada remains the industry's best hope for the storage of spent fuel only intensifies the exasperation.

So the industry's lobbying arm now wants to build Nevada's support for the repository the old-fashioned way -- by paying for it.

On Wednesday, the Nuclear Energy Institute unveiled a bill draft that would pay the state of Nevada $25 million per year to accept the development of a temporary waste storage site at Yucca Mountain. Once the first waste shipment arrives, that annual payment would double to $50 million.

If the request were taken up by Congress as written, nuclear waste could begin arriving in Nevada within two years of the legislation's passage.

We all knew it would come to this, didn't we? With this campaign, the nuclear energy industry formally acknowledges what Nevadans have known for 20 years: There is no science behind the Yucca Mountain Project. All the "studies" completed to justify this boondoggle had a predetermined outcome. It's just taking a long time to get there.

So now, finally, after years of muted debate in this state about whether Nevada should drop its opposition to the repository and negotiate with the federal government for benefits, the Nuclear Energy Institute has submitted the first offer.

And is it ever low.

If $25 million per year were divided between every resident of the state, each person would get about $10. If the money were dumped into the state government's general fund, it might cover the Millennium Scholarship program for a year. For $50 million, the Clark County School District can build a new high school.

The standard for paying off a state's population was set by the Alaska Permanent Fund, which collects fees and taxes from oil and mineral exploration and production and offers qualifying residents an annual dividend. This year's check is for $1,106.96. That's per resident.

The Nuclear Energy Institute's proposition is the equivalent of trying to impress a date by buying microwaved burritos at the corner convenience store and expecting romance to follow. Yes, prostitution is legal in parts of Nevada, but does the nuclear lobby really think we're that easy?

There is probably no figure that would make Nevadans forget all their health, safety and environmental concerns about the Yucca Mountain Project. Certainly, the Nuclear Energy Institute's current proposal won't move the repository any closer to completion.