Politicians accepted money from Yucca Mountain contractors

Benjamin Grove

Wednesday, April 19, 2000 | 11:35 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- Three Nevada politicians -- two in Congress -- and one candidate have taken money from contractors on the Yucca Mountain project despite their stated strong opposition to the project.

Senate candidate John Ensign earlier this week returned a $1,000 contribution he got from Science Applications International Corporation, a company doing work for the U.S. Department of Energy at Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. The federal government has a plan to bury the nation's nuclear waste there.

The DOE is conducting studies of the mountain to determine whether it is a suitable site for 77,000 tons of highly radioactive waste.

Ensign also received $4,000 in 1997 and 1998 from Fluor Daniel, Inc., an international engineering and construction company conducting work at Yucca, according to the DOE. It was not immediately clear today how long Fluor Daniel has been at work at Yucca.

Ensign campaign chairman Pete Ernaut said today that he had not previously heard of the company. He said company officials could not confirm whether Fluor was at work at Yucca.

The Ensign campaign returns checks from companies conducting work at Yucca, he said. But sometimes unsolicited checks "fall through the cracks." The campaign keeps a list of "non-preferred" donors, he said.

"A lot of these construction operations, especially department of defense contractors, are a little hard to track because they do business all over the place," Ernaut said. "We'll certainly look into this and if it turns out it is (a Yucca contractor), we'll go through our standard operating procedure and return the check."

Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., also has decided to give back $4,000 he received from Science Applications International, spokesman Mark Schuermann.

And Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., will return $1,000 he got from Science Applications International in two donations made in 1997 and 1999.

"Like Senator Reid, I was unaware of SAIC's relationship to the Yucca Mountain program," Gibbons said today in a statement delivered by chief-of-staff Mike Dayton. "Nevadans must always be united in our efforts to keep nuclear waste out of our state, so I will be joining Sen. Reid and Congressman Ensign in returning SAIC's campaign donations."

Gibbons also received $1,500, including a $500 check he received in February, from TRW Inc., an international technology and manufacturing firm with projects all over the world.

TRW has been a primary contractor at Yucca, with over 400 workers at the site during an October count, according to the Department of Energy. But TRW has other Nevada interests and does important work at the Nevada Test Site.