Reid asks for DOE Yucca probe

Friday, Dec. 8, 2000 | 10:48 a.m.

Nevada Sen. Harry Reid today formally requested an internal Department of Energy investigation into whether federal laws were violated in the drafting of a report that recommends Yucca Mountain as the nation's high-level nuclear waste dump.

Reid, the Senate's assistant Democratic leader, sent a letter to Gregory Friedman, the DOE's inspector general, asking him to investigate the circumstances surrounding the preparation of documents that suggest Yucca Mountain is safe to store the radioactive waste, even though an epic study of the Nevada site has not been completed.

The Sun reported last Friday that it had obtained a draft of a 60-page DOE overview that comes to that conclusion, as well as a two-page reviewer's note that suggests the overview is designed to help nuclear industry officials sell the Yucca Mountain Project, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, to Congress.

"The overview provides information that potential supporters can use in expressing support for a site recommendation," the note, written by a DOE contractor, says.

Federal law prohibits the DOE from taking sides during the site selection process.

"An insidious DOE and DOE contractor bias in favor of rubber-stamping the Yucca Mountain site characterization process has been a problem for years," Reid wrote in his letter. "These documents suggest that any public pretense of impartiality has been abandoned by the (DOE) and DOE contractors.

"This brazen disregard for federal law and regulations may reflect concerns within the DOE and the nuclear industry that an honest scientific review of the Yucca Mountain site will disqualify the site as a high-level radioactive waste repository."

Reid asked the inspector general to investigate whether the documents "were prepared in violation of laws or regulations prohibiting the use of federal funds for lobbying purposes.

"I would also recommend that you determine whether DOE or DOE contractors have communicated with the nuclear industry representatives regarding any of these documents either formally or informally," Reid wrote.

"Finally, I am deeply troubled by the (note's) assertion that 'in fact, the technical suitability of the site is less a concern to Congress than the broader issue of whether the nuclear waste problem can be solved at an affordable price in both financial and political terms.'

"This assertion must reflect DOE and DOE contractor bias because it clearly does not reflect the intent of Congress as it has been codified in law.

"I respectfully request that you investigate whether DOE or DOE contractors have considered, in any fashion, a formal or informal strategy for supporting the site characterization recommendation in violation of the law."

Earlier this week, Reid told the Sun: "I think what the DOE did was wrong and probably illegal. You can't do a biased report to jerk people around who are opposed to storing nuclear waste in Nevada."

Last week, after the Sun reported that it had obtained the DOE documents pointing to the agency's collaboration with the nuclear industry, Reid said he would conduct his own congressional investigation into the DOE's actions.

He said he would use his Environment and Public Works Committee, which has oversight of the nation's high-level nuclear waste plan, as a springboard for public hearings in Washington early next year.

With Congress headed for a historic 50-50 split, Reid, as the committee's ranking Democrat, could become the panel's chairman or co-chairman next year, giving him even more influence in the fight against Yucca Mountain.

The latest DOE efforts also have enraged Nevada Gov. Kenny Guinn, who this week said the agency has lost "credibility" with him.

Guinn said he wants to call a summit of elected leaders in Nevada and Washington -- similar to a forum he held in February 1999 -- to discuss a strategy to counter the latest developments coming out of the DOE.

"We need to sit down and re-examine our position," Guinn said. "I'm still extremely disappointed. We worked very openly and diligently with the DOE."

Ivan Itkan, director of the DOE's Civilian Waste Management Office in Washington, has said he disapproved of the reviewer's note and removed it from subsequent drafts of the overview.

Itkin insisted the DOE is doing a professional and objective job of evaluating Yucca Mountain.

And his boss, Energy Secretary Bill Richardson, contended that the suitability of the Nevada site "will be based on science and not on what's good for the nuclear industry."