Gibbons wants probe of Yucca contract

Tuesday, Oct. 12, 1999 | 10:52 a.m.

Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., has called for a General Accounting Office investigation into a $16 million contract awarded to a Washington, D.C., law firm that represents a Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository contractor.

A month ago the Department of Energy awarded the contract for an estimated 38,900 hours of legal work to the Washington office of Winston & Strawn to review the license application for a high-level nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

The DOE expects to submit the application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission after 2003 for building and operating a repository for 70,000 tons of highly radioactive waste.

The review may be complicated by the opposition to the project, observers noted.

Last week a competitor for the review contract filed a complaint that Winston & Strawn could not complete an independent review of the application because the firm had helped in its preparation.

TRW Environmental Safety Services Inc., a DOE engineering contractor, dug the 5-mile-long exploratory tunnel at the site and prepared the application. TRW, in turn, hired Winston & Strawn to review its work.

Gibbons termed the issue a conflict of interest.

"A conflict of interest is an absolute understatement," the congressman said in a statement. "What's next? Allowing the nuclear waste lobbyists to set radiation standards? I don't think so.

"Before Congress considers any further action on nuclear waste legislation, the General Accounting Office needs to present a full review to the American people," Gibbons said, referring to legislation pending in the Senate that could bring waste to the mountain three years early.

The General Accounting Office is the investigative arm for Congress.

A spokeswoman for Winston & Strawn in Chicago referred all questions to the DOE.

The Energy Department responded in a written statement that it had not reviewed the protest but would respond by Nov. 4.