GAO to probe letter alleging Yucca mismanagement

Benjamin Grove

Tuesday, March 6, 2001 | 11:08 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- Officials with the General Accounting Office will investigate charges made in an anonymous six-page letter that allege mismanagement at the Yucca Mountain project. It's not clear when the investigation will begin or conclude.

"They appear enthusiastic and appear to appreciate the seriousness of the allegations," Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., said.

The letter, apparently written by a Yucca project insider, surfaced in February. It had been sent to Nevada lawmakers in Congress and other energy officials in Washington. The letter warned that the Department of Energy's plan to bury the nation's nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain could fail due to mismanagement and unqualified project managers.

On Feb. 12 Berkley asked the GAO, the investigative arm of Congress, to look into charges made in the six-page letter. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., made a similar request. The GAO agreed to the job in a letter to Berkley dated Feb. 26.

Yucca has been under DOE study since 1987, when Congress deemed it the site for the nation's nuclear waste repository. If Yucca is eventually approved, highly radioactive material would be shipped by truck and train cross-country to the site 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

The anonymous letter also had been sent to DOE Inspector General Gregory Friedman. He is investigating whether there is DOE bias in favor of the Yucca project even before Yucca has been deemed safe and is officially approved by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Friedman's investigation was launched after the Sun published a story about an anonymous two-page memo that had been attached to an official DOE Yucca study report. That memo argued that the biggest obstacle facing the project was the cost and that Congress should be lobbied to convince members that the costs were justified.

The significance of the memo was that it appeared to show a close relationship between the contractor and DOE officials. Under federal law the DOE is supposed to remain impartial in the site selection process for a nuclear waste dump.

The GAO assigned the probe to Bob Robinson, Managing Director for Natural Resources and Environment, according to the letter to Berkley.