There are hearings this week in Nevada on the federal government's plan to bury nuclear waste inside Yucca Mountain (above). The mountain sixteen miles from California is still the Energy Department's preferred choice , according to the Los Angeles Times. The Yucca Mountain debate has been going on, it seems, forever. The hearings this week are on various environmental impact studies. "The federal plan to bury nuclear waste at a dump in Yucca Mountain has encountered one setback after another in the courts," reported the Times. "It is hated in much of the West. It looks like it is in deep political trouble in Congress. And a number of presidential candidates have attacked the dump."Still, the Energy Department is plodding ahead with plans to bury 70 metric tons of spent commercial fuel and nuclear weapons waste in the Nevada wasteland. There's a hearing Monday (today) from 4 to 7 p.m. at the Cashman Center in Las Vegas.