Editorial: Yucca work too critical for any bias

Thursday, Oct. 30, 2003 | 8:44 a.m.

In July 2001 the Las Vegas Sun uncovered proof that the law firm chosen by the Energy Department to prepare a license application for Yucca Mountain had previous ties to the nuclear power industry. The disclosure was significant because it demonstrated a conflict of interest, which is not allowed under the regulations governing the development of Yucca Mountain. The nuclear power industry strongly supports opening Yucca Mountain. The Energy Department, however, is supposed to be relying on scientific studies alone in determining whether to develop Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, as the nation's lone burial site for high-level nuclear waste.

Three months after the Sun's story, the Chicago-based law firm of Winston & Strawn withdrew as the Energy Department's counsel. The withdrawal came after Winston & Strawn had invested two years of research and preparation into the license application. The withdrawal also came after the Energy Department's inspector general found that the law firm, in applying for the $16.5 million contract, had not disclosed its conflict. The firm had represented the former main contractor on Yucca Mountain and had lobbied for the Nuclear Energy Institute, the project's top supporter.

A competing law firm that had bid for the license-application contract argued in a federal suit that its bid should be awarded because Winston & Strawn hadn't disclosed the conflict. Tuesday, in response to the suit, a federal appeals court said the Energy Department must present evidence that Winston & Strawn was qualified for the contract, despite its conflict. If the Energy Department cannot provide acceptable evidence, we believe the license application work must start over. The nation needs assurances that a project of this importance is free of bias.