Top Yucca scientist opts for early retirement

Tuesday, April 5, 2005 | 9:37 a.m.

A top scientist who had worked for years on the Yucca Mountain nuclear dump effort took early retirement on March 29.

Michael Voegele, the lead Yucca Mountain scientist with Bechtel-SAIC, the company hired by the government to build the nuclear dump, took advantage of an opportunity to retire early, Bechtel-SAIC spokesman Jason Bohne said Monday.

"The timing was right for him personally," Bohne of Las Vegas said.

Voegele had been overseeing technical work prepared for a licensing application to allow the Energy Department to build the repository, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

Voegele could not be reached for comment Monday.

Bohne said Voegele's retirement after two decades with the company had nothing to do with the federal investigations into alleged falsification of documents related to the dump.

At least two U.S. Geological Survey scientists have suggested falsifications of data on water flow rates, a key issue in isolating radioactive wastes, as well as potential climate changes. The e-mails were circulated between 1998 and 2000 among other scientists studying Yucca Mountain.

Voegele was chief scientist for Bechtel-SAIC when the Yucca Mountain contractor sent 6 million pages of information about the mountain to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in July 2004, a first step in applying for a license.

At the time the Energy Department and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission were struggling with 293 key technical issues, areas both the department and the commission agreed needed more answers. Voegele said at the time that 101 issues had been reviewed and accepted by the commission.