Yucca probe expansion sought

Friday, Jan. 26, 2001 | 11:36 a.m.

An investigation into possible bias in selecting a Yucca Mountain high-level nuclear waste repository by the Department of Energy should be expanded to include all contractors, Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., said today.

There is additional evidence in documents that the DOE may have tainted the scientific studies of the mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, as the sole solution to the government's nuclear waste problem.

Documents outlining how the repository would be designed prior to scientific studies being completed and DOE's use of a law firm who represented Yucca's chief contractor to review the contractor's work were cited by Berkley.

The design documents were discovered by the Sun and published in an article in December. The Sun and the New York Times have both published stories about DOE's relationship with the law firm.

The DOE's inspector general sent a team of investigators to Las Vegas at the request of Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev. A spokeswoman confirmed Thursday that the probe was under way.

The inspector general's office plans to prepare a public report after the investigation is completed, spokeswoman Wilma Slaughter said.

"I now ask that you expand the investigation to encompass all of DOE's and its contractors' prior actions concerning the Yucca Mountain project," Berkley's letter says.

"I believe it is in the interest of the law that Nevada citizens, and the American people are ensured that the Yucca Mountain project has been based upon sound scientific research, rather than political foul play."

The initial investigation focuses on the DOE's chief contractor. It was launched after the Sun obtained a 60-page overview suggesting Yucca Mountain is safe to store highly radioactive waste, even though lengthy studies of the Nevada site haven't been completed.

Attached to the draft was a two-page memo suggesting that the overview could be used to help the nuclear industry sell Yucca Mountain to Congress.

The overview and memo had been released to about a dozen DOE reviewers in October, DOE officials said, but the DOE did not agree with the tone of the memo.

Reid said the documents appeared to show the DOE collaborating with its chief Yucca Mountain contractor, TRW Environmental Safety Systems Inc., to win approval for the Nevada site, the only one in the U.S. under study to keep 77,000 tons of highly radioactive waste safe for 10,000 years.