Congress gets Yucca letter

Friday, Feb. 1, 2002 | 10:13 a.m.

A broad coalition of environmental and public interest groups delivered a letter to Congress on Wednesday that outlined the flawed process used by the Department of Energy to study only one nuclear repository site: Yucca Mountain.

In addition to the letter, the 232 groups hand-delivered to each congressional representative a 24-page report from the DOE's inspector general released in November. The report mentioned the Chicago-based law firm of Winston & Strawn, which held a Yucca Mountain contract at the same time it was paid to lobby Congress by the nuclear industry.

Winston & Strawn has since withdrawn from its $16.5 million government contract.

The letter was signed by representatives of Public Citizen Critical Mass Energy Project, the Nuclear Information and Resource Service, and Citizen Alert, a statewide Nevada environmental group.

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