WASHINGTON (AP) - The head of the Yucca Mountain nuclear dump project said Thursday that if Congress cuts his 2008 budget he might not be able to submit a license application for the repository in June of next year as he's repeatedly promised.

President Bush requested $494.5 million for the dump in 2008, which a Senate spending committee already has pared to $444 million. The final figure is under negotiation as Congress rushes to complete spending bills before Christmas, but it's expected to be around $395 million. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., opposes the dump 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas and is fighting to keep funding down.

Such a low figure would be "very serious," said Edward F. "Ward" Sproat, director of the Energy Department's Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management.

"My commitment to get this license application in by June 30 is uncertain because I don't know how much money I'm going to be able to get in 2008," Sproat told reporters after delivering the same message to a panel of the National Academy of Sciences.

Sproat said he finds the situation frustrating. He couldn't specify the minimum amount needed to submit the required license application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission by June 30.

Sproat also stressed that long-term prospects for the often delayed dump depend on increased funding. Once the dump is open - something not expected to happen before 2020 - it will cost $1.2 billion to $1.9 billion annually to operate, Sproat said.

"If you're only getting $300 (million) to $400 million a year, it's never, ever going to happen," Sproat said.

He also reiterated in his speech to the National Academies Nuclear and Radiation Studies Board that unless Congress lifts the 77,000-ton limit that the dump is legally allowed to hold, there will be more than enough radioactive waste piled around the country to fill Yucca Mountain before it even opens.

Sproat said his department will deliver a report to Congress in six to eight months detailing the need for a second dump or other options to deal with the surplus waste. He said the report will not include the option of putting the nuclear waste into dry cask storage units and leaving it at the reactor sites around the country where it is now stored, the solution advocated by Nevada lawmakers.

Sproat said that solution would be no faster or easier than proceeding with Yucca Mountain.

Also Thursday the Energy Department released two of three independent assessments that Sproat had ordered after taking over the project last year.

A review by InfoZen Inc. concluded that quality assurance issues at the dump had improved but more improvement was needed. A second review, on engineering, by Longenecker & Associates said that overall engineering processes and procedures being used for licensing and designing the dump are appropriate though they could be streamlined.

A third assessment, of the license application itself, won't be released until the application is released.

Reid immediately took issue with the findings, contending there were conflicts of interest with a member of Longenecker's managing board, something Sproat disputed.

"The 'independent' assessments released by the Department of Energy today are yet another example of how the DOE is rigging the process and doing everything it can to make Nevada the nation's nuclear waste dump," Reid said. "I will continue doing everything I can to prevent the DOE from moving forward."

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On the Net:

Yucca Mountain Project: http://www.ymp.gov

Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects: http://www.state.nv.us/nucwaste