DOE’s Yucca probe points to firm’s bias

Benjamin Grove and Mary Manning

Thursday, Nov. 15, 2001 | 11:03 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- The Department of Energy's law firm on the Yucca Mountain project may have had a serious, undisclosed conflict of interest with the nuclear industry, the DOE's internal investigator today revealed.

The DOE must "promptly evaluate" whether the DOE's law firm, Chicago-based Winston & Strawn, acted illegally or unethically, DOE Inspector General Gregory Friedman said in a report.

Sens. John Ensign, R-Nev., and Harry Reid, D-Nev., said they want more than that.

Reid, the No. 2 Senate Democrat, said he likely will request a congressional inquiry, including hearings. He said the law firm should refund the money DOE has paid it for legal services -- about $1.8 million from when the contract began in 1999 through May 2001.

Reid and Ensign said the NRC also should investigate the firm.

Conflict-of-interest allegations first surfaced in July after the Sun uncovered that Winston & Strawn also had been a registered lobbyist for the Nuclear Energy Institute, actively lobbying in favor of Yucca Mountain.

In Washington this morning, Ensign told reporters that the Sun "brought this story to our attention back in July."

Ensign and Reid today said the DOE's Inspector General's report was a bombshell and a huge breakthrough for anti-Yucca Nevada officials who have long battled the federal plan to bury high-level nuclear waste in Nevada.

Reid said, "I think that the best thing that this firm should do, could do, is find a good lawyer. They are in a big, big pile of trouble."

The ultimate effect of the findings of Friedman's three-month probe are not yet clear, nor is the future of the firm's work on the Yucca project. But the findings could slow the whole Yucca Mountain project, the senators said.

Internal documents from Winston & Strawn prove the firm knew it had a potential conflict of interest on its hands while it was working on Yucca legal documents for the Department of Energy -- and also lobbying on behalf of the pro-Yucca nuclear industry for the NEI.

When the firm applied in 1999 to the DOE for the $16.5 million Yucca Mountain contract, it did not disclose its ties to the nuclear lobby, the 26-page report said.

Friedman's investigation found that 14 lawyers who worked on the Yucca project legal work had also worked on behalf of NEI.

"Winston & Strawn acknowledged to the Department and the Office of Inspector General that no firewalls were used on the Yucca legal contract or on any matters concerning the Nuclear Energy Institute," the report said.

Reid said, "(The firm) was being paid large sums of money by both sides and laughing all the way to the bank."

Friedman's report said Winston & Strawn asserted there was no conflict of interest and that its work on the Yucca project had not been compromised.

Friedman's report said DOE officials had "reached no conclusions" about whether there had been an "actual or potential" conflict. But DOE officials also said that if Winston & Strawn had been forthcoming in 1999 about ties to NEI, the DOE could have disqualified the firm.

Reid and Ensign said Friedman's findings prove their long-standing arguments that the whole Yucca Mountain project has been biased since its inception in 1987. The senators were careful to point out, however, that the fault here lies not with DOE but with Winston & Strawn for not disclosing ties to the nuclear industry.

Reid and Ensign said the Nuclear Regulatory Commission should investigate the findings as it considers whether to license Yucca Mountain in the coming years.

Calls to Winston & Strawn were not returned this morning. The firm has declined interviews numerous times since July.

Friedman briefed Reid and Ensign in Reid's office Wednesday night. The senators promptly scheduled interviews today via satellite with Nevada television news stations to blast Winston & Strawn.

The two senators then quickly took to the Senate floor to trumpet news of the report -- especially to their Senate colleagues who support the Yucca Mountain plan. "The Department of Energy hired a biased, unethical law firm," Reid said. "Law firms have built-in mechanisms to prevent conflicts of interest."

But those firewalls "burned down," Reid said. "This law firm, in my opinion, is burning to the ground."

Ensign said the firm's behavior was "so outrageous it's hard to even conceive."

"When you have a conflict of interest, the whole process needs to stop and we need to have a complete investigation," Ensign said.

Yucca Mountain is the proposed site of the world's first high-level nuclear waste site. DOE scientists have managed program studies that began in 1983 at the site 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. DOE Secretary Spencer Abraham is preparing to make a final recommendation on the site.

Nevada officials don't want to play host for 10,000 years to 77,000 tons of nuclear waste, and challenge the DOE at every turn. The DOE has forged ahead partly because the DOE by law was supposed to haul waste away from the nation's 103 nuclear power plants to a national repository by 1998.

The nuclear industry has lobbied heavily in favor of the Yucca plan, led by the Nuclear Energy Institute. NEI officials declined comment today, but officials previously have said the firm did little lobbying for them.

In 1999, the DOE hired Winston & Strawn to review a license the DOE must submit to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to bury waste at Yucca.

Friedman's report also said:

* An internal Winston & Strawn memo dated June 17, 1999, said the firm had taken steps to avoid "any hint of a conflict," even though the firm admits it was a registered lobbyist for NEI.

* Winston & Strawn disclosed to DOE its relationship with NEI for the first time in July 2001 when it severed its ties with NEI -- two years after the DOE hired the firm.

* Winston & Strawn may have had another conflict -- the firm also represented NAC International, a nuclear waste cask company that stands to gain from the Yucca project. DOE asked Winston & Strawn to sever that contract, which the firm did.