DOE official won’t expand bias probe

Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2001 | 11:15 a.m.

The Energy Department's inspector general has denied Rep. Shelley Berkley's request to expand an investigation into bias on the Yucca Mountain high-level nuclear waste repository.

Berkley, D-Nev., asked the inspector general to investigate the possible conflict of interest of a law firm the DOE hired to represent it during licensing before the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, is the only site being studied for a proposed repository to store 77,000 tons of commercial and defense nuclear waste. If it is approved, it could open by 2010.

The DOE last year hired Winston & Strawn of Chicago, a law firm that has also represented TRW Environmental Safety Systems Inc., the primary Yucca Mountain contractor until Monday. Bechtel-SAIC now holds the primary contract, worth $3.1 billion over five years.

The inspector general already is looking into possible DOE bias in favor of a repository.

The investigation was launched after the Sun obtained a copy of a two-page, anonymous memo attached to a draft report to Congress that suggested that the overview could be used to help the nuclear industry sell a repository to Congress despite rising costs.

Berkley had asked that that investigation be expanded to examine all of DOE's contractors on the project, especially the Winston & Strawn contract.

The contract calls for Winston & Strawn to review the Yucca Mountain license application, which eventually must be submitted to the NRC. The firm would find itself judging the work of its former client.

Since a competing firm has sued over the contract, an inspector general's review "would not be appropriate at this time," Inspector General Gregory Friedman said on Tuesday.

Friedman did agree, however, to review a contractor's blueprint drawn for a repository at Yucca Mountain, although the site has not been approved for nuclear waste storage.

The review team has a copy of the 51-page repository design document prepared by TRW, the former major Yucca Mountain contractor, he said. "It is included among the documents to be considered as part of our current evaluation," Friedman said.

Gov. Kenny Guinn last month also sought an investigation into the Winston & Strawn contract.

"Given these facts, many are concerned that the decision to hire this law firm represents yet another example of the DOE's predisposition toward selecting Yucca Mountain as the location for the high-level nuclear waste repository," Guinn wrote to Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham.

Guinn said he plans to attend the National Governors Association annual winter meeting in Washington Feb. 24-28 and wants to sit down with Abraham Feb. 26 or Feb. 27.

The legal concerns intensified last week. A competing law firm filed an amended conflict-of-interest complaint against the DOE and Winston & Strawn in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

New York-based LeBoeuf, Lamb, Greene & MacRae first sued March 28 after the $16.5 million DOE contract had been awarded to Winston & Strawn. The suit alleged that Winston & Strawn never should have received the contract because of its past dealings with TRW.

In the new complaint, LeBoeuf, Lamb, Greene & MacRae introduced a 1992 TRW letter that suggested Winston & Strawn should have been disqualified from bidding to represent the DOE in the repository licensing process, based on the Energy Department's own documents.

Because of its past TRW association, Winston & Strawn cannot perform an independent review of the DOE's license application, the competing firm alleges.

The LeBoeuf firm also cited the inspector general's investigation into alleged bias at Yucca Mountain as part of its case in the amended complaint.