LINCOLN, NEB. ? The state of Nebraska on Wednesday appealed a $151 million judgment for blocking construction of a five-state dump for low-level radioactive waste.

The state is asking for a reversal of the federal court’s damages award and at the least a chance to present the case to a jury.

Last month’s trial was before U.S. District Judge Richard Kopf, who denied the state’s request for a jury trial.

“The judge’s bad-faith determination is wrong, plain and simple,” said Nebraska’s attorney John Wittenborn.

The attorney for the five-state commission, Alan Peterson, was not immediately available for comment late Wednesday.

In his Sept. 30 ruling, Kopf said that former Gov. Ben Nelson, a Democrat who is now a U.S. senator, engaged in a politically motivated and orchestrated plot to keep the dump from being built in Nebraska.

Kopf said Nelson’s office “directly interfered with the regulatory process.”

The dump was to hold waste from Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana, Nebraska and Oklahoma which joined in 1983 to form the Central Interstate Low-Level Radioactive Waste Compact.

Nebraska officials argued that they refused to license the dump because of concerns about possible pollution and a high-water table at the proposed site in Boyd County near the South Dakota border.

“The state agencies made the right license decision and did so in a fair and open process, devoid of politics,” Wittenborn said.

The appeal filed Wednesday in the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals indicates the state will challenge the decision ordering the state to pay $151 million.

The judge had no authority to award taxpayer money to the five-state commission, Wittenborn said.

“This is a completely undeserved and inappropriate windfall for the commission, which would be paid out of the pockets of Nebraska taxpayers,” Wittenborn said.

The appeal also questions Kopf’s denial of Nebraska’s request for a jury trial.

“I am confident a jury would have found the state acted properly and completely above board in denying the license,” Wittenborn said.