Reid, Ensign to hold Senate hearing in LV on Yucca flaws

Benjamin Grove

Tuesday, May 6, 2003 | 11:18 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- Sens. Harry Reid, D-Nev., and John Ensign, R-Nev., are organizing a Senate field hearing in Las Vegas to investigate alleged flaws in the Yucca Mountain project.

The hearing is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. on May 28. The venue has not been finalized.

The senators may invite Yucca workers who have raised concerns about the project to testify, but a witness list also has not been finalized.

"We must take a serious look at allegations of flawed science, and this hearing will provide the opportunity for us to question those who have seen problems first hand," Ensign said.

An Energy Department spokesman today said the department has no comment on the hearing.

The senators are especially interested in learning more about problems within the Yucca's quality assurance program, which has seen a number of worker complaints.

James Mattimoe, a quality assurance manager who worked for Navarro Engineering and Research, a Tennessee-based Yucca contractor, said he was unfairly fired after he complained about how project concerns were handled. Instead of handling Mattimoe's concerns about the project, Energy Department officials hired a law firm to launch an investigation of Mattimoe, Mattimoe said. The firm, Morgan Lewis, had ties to the Yucca project, the Sun later reported.

Mattimoe appealed, and a Department of Labor probe agreed he was unfairly terminated. Mattimoe, who now works at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, settled his grievance with Navarro in an undisclosed settlement.

Another Yucca quality assurance manager, Robert Clark, was shifted to other duties as part of the Mattimoe controversy.

More recently, three audit team members who uncovered flaws in Yucca work procedures also were reportedly reassigned. At least one of them, Don Harris, was given his job back. The audit team also worked for Navarro. Navarro managers said Harris' temporary reassignment had nothing to do with his concerns about the project and that another team member, George Harper, was never reassigned.

Still, the Nevada senators are worried that Yucca workers are not free to raise concerns about the project and about whether the scientific data supporting the project has been handled properly.

"This hearing will give us the opportunity to find out, for the record, whether or not the scientific studies at the site are credible," Reid said. "More and more evidence clearly indicates that that is not the case."

Reid will host the field hearing as the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations subcommittee on energy and water projects, which has budget control over Yucca.