Reid’s release of GAO report did not break rules

Benjamin Grove

Wednesday, Dec. 5, 2001 | 9:32 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., drew an angry response from Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham but broke no written rules or protocols of the General Accounting Office when he gave excerpts of a draft copy of a GAO report on Yucca Mountain to the media.

Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., and Reid requested the GAO report in February. The GAO gave Reid, Berkley and the Department of Energy an advance, draft copy on Nov. 28, according GAO protocols, GAO spokeswoman Laura Kopelson said.

As a matter of practice, the GAO releases draft copies to report-requestors and involved agencies -- in this case Reid and the DOE. That allows both sides to respond to the study -- and correct or clarify any mistakes -- before the report is officially released.

The Yucca draft report, set for official release Dec. 14, is critical of the Yucca Mountain plan, recommending an indefinite delay in the project. That makes it useful fodder for Nevada lawmakers in their attempts to kill the Yucca project.

GAO officials prefer that lawmakers keep draft reports under wraps until the involved agencies respond and the final reports are issued, GAO spokesman Jeff Nelligan said.

However, lawmakers on occasion give the draft reports to the press as Reid did, he said.

Still, it was "unfortunate" that Reid gave the report to the media, Nelligan said.

"It was a draft report -- not a final report," Nelligan said.

The report said the DOE's own major contractor, Bechtel SAIC, has told government officials that scientific studies about the Yucca Mountain's suitability as a nuclear waste burial ground would not be complete until 2006. But Bechtel officials this week hotly disputed the GAO report, saying company officials "are astounded by the factual and legal inaccuracies."

Reid had given excerpts of the summary of the draft report to the Washington Post Nov. 29 after the newspaper agreed to run a prominently placed story about it in exchange for an exclusive, congressional aides said.

The Post ran a story, "GAO Challenges Plans for Storage of Nuclear Waste," the next day with a photo of the Yucca site on page 3.

Reid gave the story to the Washington Post so that Nevada lawmakers could point to the story in their arguments with fellow lawmakers against the Yucca Mountain plan, congressional aides said.

"This is the first time that light has been shone down the mineshaft of Yucca Mountain, and it's important that excerpts of this information get out," said Reid spokesman Nathan Naylor.

After the story appeared, Abraham fired off a testy letter to the General Accounting Office. Abraham hinted at dirty politics, objecting to the report's "premature disclosure" in his Nov. 30 letter to GAO Comptroller General David Walker.

"I well recognize how politically charged the Yucca Mountain project is, but it is a shame that someone or some persons have marred the GAO's integrity and undermined the validity of this inquiry," Abraham continued. "I note that the requestors of this report have a long history of strong opposition to the Yucca Mountain project."