Berkley eyes probe of Yucca worker’s charges

Monday, Dec. 9, 2002 | 9:54 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., has asked the Office of Government Ethics to investigate a new allegation of impropriety by the Energy Department.

Berkley requested the probe after the Sun on Friday reported that the international law firm Morgan Lewis & Bockius, which was hired by the Energy Department to investigate a Yucca manager who was raising concerns about the project, had long-standing ties to the pro-Yucca nuclear industry.

Yucca quality assurance manager James Mattimoe said he was trying to raise concerns about how complaints inside the program were handled when the department hired Morgan Lewis to investigate him last year.

The firm's report was critical of Mattimoe's on-the-job behavior and, as a result, he was fired. Mattimoe appealed to the Labor Department Labor, which agreed that Mattimoe had been unjustly dismissed and ordered him reinstated.

That appeal is now being heard by the Yucca contractor that employed -- and fired -- Mattimoe, Navarro Research and Engineering Inc.

Nevada lawmakers say that a law firm with a long history of representing pro-Yucca nuclear utilities could not conduct a completely independent investigation of a worker who was raising concerns about the project.

The appearance of impropriety warrants investigation, Berkley wrote in a letter late last week to the Office of Government Ethics, which investigates allegations of conflicts of interest in federal departments. Berkley also plans to ask the District of Columbia Bar Association to look into the matter, and she and Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., may ask for an investigation by the Energy Department's inspector general.