Berkley wants D.C. bar to probe Yucca lawyers

Tuesday, Nov. 6, 2001 | 9:36 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., is asking the District of Columbia Bar Association to investigate whether the law firm that handles legal work for the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste project improperly obtained a key, leaked document.

Winston & Strawn is already a focal point of two federal investigations. The Department of Energy's inspector general is investigating conflict-of-interest charges against the firm.

In a separate matter, last week the Nuclear Regulatory Commission confirmed it is investigating whether the firm obtained a confidential NRC Yucca review plan.

Yucca Mountain is the proposed site of the world's first high-level nuclear waste repository. If approved by Congress and the president, the NRC would review an application submitted by the DOE for a license to dump waste at the site 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

The DOE hired Winston & Strawn for $16.5 million in 1999 to help develop the license application. Nevada lawmakers last week fumed at allegations that the firm -- and DOE -- may have obtained the NRC's Yucca review plan before the document was released publicly.

Winston & Strawn has not responded to the charges.

"The premature release of this document undermines the credibility of the NRC's mandatory independence from the DOE, further corrupting the licensing process for the Yucca Mountain project," Berkley wrote to the D.C. Bar in a letter dated today.