Yucca workers uneasy criticizing program

Benjamin Grove

Thursday, May 22, 2003 | 11:23 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- Yucca Mountain workers are not comfortable raising concerns about the project, a top Yucca auditor wrote to Sens. Harry Reid, D-Nev., and John Ensign, R-Nev.

Workers believe that the project's "Concerns Program" has been corrupt, that the Energy Department Inspector General is compromised, and that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission won't get involved, 14-year contractor employee Kristi Hodges wrote in a May 20 letter. The NRC ultimately is responsible for licensing the project.

Hodges also wrote that morale has fallen in the last few years among Yucca Mountain workers, and that 55 percent of project employees in a recent survey said they felt that they cannot raise concerns to managers without fear of retaliation.

Hodges is part of the project's Quality Assurance program, which is responsible in part for making sure that Yucca data is handled properly.

Recent audits, including one in which Hodges was involved, identified problems that have led to "corrective actions" designed to fix flaws in data handling.

"QA professionals have to tell people what they don't want to hear -- that there are problems that have to be fixed," Hodges wrote. "Problems cost money, impact schedule and tend to get people in trouble. Lately we, the (Yucca) QA professionals, are the ones in trouble."

Hodges wrote the seven-page letter in advance of a Senate hearing scheduled for Wednesday in Las Vegas. Ensign and Reid are conducting the hearing to explore Yucca project flaws. The senators said they intend to include project employees.

"Sen. Reid is very proud of Kristi for coming forward," Reid spokeswoman Tessa Hafen said. "We've seen a lot of anonymous letters where people were afraid to sign their names."

Hodges noted in her letter that there is no "technical smoking gun" that proves Yucca is an unsafe site to construct a nuclear waste repository.