Omaha, Neb. ? U.S. Sen. Ben Nelson does not regret state officials’ decision six years ago to deny a license for a low-level nuclear waste dump in northeast Nebraska, he said Saturday.

“I still believe the decision made by state regulators to deny the license for the Boyd County site was the right decision,” the Nebraska Democrat, who was governor at the time, said in a written statement. “In the end, scientists determined the site wasn’t safe. Not even the federal court is willing to say it was.”

The dump was to hold radioactive waste from member states of a compact Nebraska belongs to, which also includes Kansas, Arkansas, Louisiana and Oklahoma.

Those states sued when Nebraska denied the license.

In 2002, U.S. District Judge Richard Kopf said Nelson and the state acted in bad faith in refusing to license the facility, which was to hold radioactive waste from the five states.

After a failed appeal and months of negotiations, Nebraska settled the lawsuit last week, agreeing to pay $141 million to the multistate group. As part of the agreement, Nebraska was relieved of its obligation to build the waste site, although the state and compact officials must jointly explore possible sites to store their waste.

Nelson said the settlement “marks the end of an ugly chapter in Nebraska that has lasted more than two decades and impacted four administrations.”

Building the dump would have required state officials to work around or ignore environmental and geological problems at the site, which could have threatened Nebraska’s land and water, Nelson said, reiterating a stance he has maintained since the license was denied.

“‘Beautiful Nebraska’ was expected to act like ‘Dutiful Nebraska’ — serving at the pleasure of the federal government,” Nelson said. “I won’t say we couldn’t have done that. But I don’t regret that we didn’t.”

He added that the announcement of the settlement was not likely to quell debate over what role Nebraska should have played regarding the dump.

“There will be those that believe it should have been built. There will be those that believe it’s worth the costs of the settlement not to build it,” he said.

“The governor (Mike Johanns) says it’s the best deal he could get, and I accept that. I have no reason not to take him at his word,” Nelson added.

Reached by phone Saturday, Nelson declined to discuss the impact the issue could have on his presumed bid for re-election in 2006. State Republicans have publicly called for Johanns to challenge Nelson in that race, and the governor has hinted that he is considering doing so.

“I’m not going to comment on any future elections,” Nelson said. “I’m focused on ’04.”