Thursday, April 20, 2000 | 12:51 p.m.
All three have said they're strongly opposed to the project, now being studied by the federal Department of Energy as a possible site for 77,000 tons of highly radioactive waste.
Ensign earlier this week returned a $1,000 contribution from Science Applications International Corp., doing work for the DOE at Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
The GOP candidate also got $4,000 in 1997 and 1998 from Fluor Daniel, Inc., an international engineering and construction firm doing work at Yucca, according to the DOE.
Ensign campaign chairman Pete Ernaut said Thursday that he had not previously heard of the company. He said company officials couldn't confirm whether Fluor was at work at Yucca.
The Ensign campaign returns checks from "non-preferred" donors including companies conducting work at Yucca, but sometimes unsolicited checks "fall through the cracks," Ernaut added.
"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. Reid, D-Nev., also has decided to give back $4,000 he received from Science Applications International, spokesman Mark Schuermann.
And Rep. Gibbons, R-Nev., will return $1,000 he got from Science Applications International in two donations made in 1997 and 1999.
"Like Sen. Reid, I was unaware of SAIC's relationship to the Yucca Mountain program," Gibbons said.
Gibbons also got $1,500 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 DOE. But TRW has other Nevada interests and does important work at the Nevada Test Site.
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