RENO, Nev. - Repeating her vow to kill Yucca Mountain if elected president, Sen. Hillary Clinton called Friday for an immediate halt to the federal licensing process and for Senate hearings to consider alternatives to the proposed nuclear waste repository in southern Nevada.

``It is past time to start exploring alternatives to Yucca Mountain,'' the Democratic presidential hopeful from New York told reporters during a teleconference.

``Once again the Bush administration is ignoring science and pushing forward recklessly with this license application without having protective standards in place,'' Clinton said.

Clinton, a member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, said she will ask the panel's chairman, California Democrat Barbara Boxer, to schedule the hearing.

The committee has jurisdiction over the Environmental Protection Agency, which is setting radiation standards for the project, and the Nuclear Regulatory Agency, which will decide whether to approve the Energy Department's application for a license to operate the waste dump 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

``I have not been persuaded that it is a suitable location for long-term storage. There are too many unanswered questions about both the geology of the site and the integrity of the science done to support the decision to store waste there,'' Clinton said.

Originally scheduled to open in 1998, the dump has been set back repeatedly by lawsuits, money shortfalls and scientific controversies. The DOE's current best-case opening date for the dump, which would hold 77,000 tons of waste, is 2017, though the Energy Department has said 2021 is more likely.

The senator said she agrees the nation must devise a ``safe, secure, long-term waste storage solution.''

``As president, I will work with the scientific community to address this problem and come up with alternative solutions. But for now, what we need to do is turn our attention to laying the groundwork for making a better, smarter decision,'' she said.

Clinton said she long has opposed the project and has been working with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., to make sure it is not built.

``As president, I will not go forward with Yucca Mountain. My administration will not proceed with Yucca Mountain,'' she said.

``I'm not going to be president for 18 months. If we don't try to slow it down now, it may ...