Wednesday, April 6, 2005 | 10:57 a.m.
WASHINGTON -- An independent commission needs to investigate the Yucca Mountain project instead of federal agencies already involved with the proposed nuclear waste repository, Rep. Jon Porter, R-Nev., said Tuesday.
At a three-hour hearing on Capitol Hill, Porter, along with Reps. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., and Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., also demanded the Energy Department stop work on the project until investigations into recently uncovered e-mails that suggest scientific work was falsified are complete.
Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., told the subcommittee he had no confidence in the Energy and Interior Departments' ongoing internal investigation.
"These agencies have nothing but empty promises," Ensign said.
Porter said the House Government Reform Committee has the power to create a commission, similar to one created by Congress after the Three Mile Island nuclear accident 25 years ago, to conduct an independent investigation.
Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., supports the idea of a independent commission because he "wants real answers and (wants) it to be truly independent" spokeswoman Tessa Hafen said.
But Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., who heads the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, which oversees the project in the Senate, will not support such a proposal, his spokeswoman said.
"Chairman Domenici does not support Congress handing its responsibilities over to commission," spokeswoman Marnie Funk said. "Yucca Mountain is a major project that has received billions of dollars in taxpayer monies. The responsibility of addressing problems at Yucca Mountain rests with Congress and the administration."
At Tuesday's hearing, lawmakers grilled Energy and Interior Department officials on the recently uncovered e-mails detailing employees' efforts to get around quality assurance steps and the changes to data detailing how water filters through the mountain.
"This is not a mere housekeeping matter," Porter said. "Water can corrode the waste's metal containers in the mountain and then transport the nuclear waste products into the region's water supply."
Gibbons, meanwhile, warned administration officials to not dismiss the problem.
"This will not go away by a mere statement of saying they are small, unimportant, trivial mistakes," Gibbons said. "I implore you, don't come to the table and make that statement."
The House Federal Workforce and Agency Organization Subcommittee, of which Porter is the chairman, released the e-mails and other documents in advance of the hearing, although the committee redacted information because, the committee said, it wanted to avoid compromising ongoing investigations.
The inspectors general of each department, along with the FBI and the U.S. attorney's office in Las Vegas, have ongoing investigations into the possible criminal aspects of falsifying goverment documents. The Energy Department and its contractors are conducting its own internal review of the science that may have been affected by the alleged falsifications.
Charles Groat, director of the U.S. Geological Survey, agreed quickly to an independent investigation. The e-mails were allegedly sent by USGS employees working on the project.
But Porter had to press Ted Garrish, the Energy Department's top Yucca official, who said the department has its own plans to bring in outside people to evaluate the quality assurance program of the department.
"I'd like to know exactly what is being proposed and I am certain the department would have a position as to whether or not we would support it," Garrish said.
Garrish said the Energy Department will continue to work on the license application for a proposed repository at Yucca, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. When it submits a license application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the commission will act as the independent reviewer, he said.
Berkley said, "I cannot understand for the life of me why DOE (the Energy Department) is going forward with this licensing procedure when we do not know whether or not the scientific documentation upon which you are basing your decisions is, in fact, flawed."
Garrish said, "Let us finish the investigation, determine what action is appropriate and then you can judge us at that time."
Garrish said the department has not made a final decision as to when it will file the application and assured the House members it would not go forward until the dump is determined to be safe.
But Garrish also said he did not know if the department was going to redo the reports affected by the possible fabricated data.
That was unacceptable, Nevada's congressional delegation said. They said they want work on the dump halted at least until they are shown unbiased reviews.
Berkley, for one, said she didn't believe the Energy Department was capable of self-investigation because of the allegations of falsifying documents.
"The very idea you are investigating yourself is a joke to me because it has been proven in the past that it doesn't work," Berkley told Garrish. "Self-correction? I don't know if that is possible."
Gov. Kenny Guinn, in his testimony at the hearing, likened the documents to the cooked books that have brought down top executives at Enron, WorldCom and others. Instead of money, the motive in this case was to cover up "incriminating and embarrassing information" that may have disqualified the project, he said.
"It is a sad day for my state and for Americans when we can no longer trust government scientists to report their findings honestly and not mislead, misrepresent or falsify the facts, especially when we are dealing with such a critically important and risky technical issue as nuclear waste disposal," Guinn said.
Guinn said he wants a face-to-face meeting with President Bush to discuss the matter once he gets more information. Guinn has not reviewed the e-mails and has not received anything from the Energy Department. In 2002, Bush told Guinn he would make his decision based on "sound science" but this new information could make a difference.
"The facts have changed. There is no doubt about that," Guinn said.
Porter, who became chairman of the subcommittee a little more than a month ago, plans to conduct another hearing on April 13, where he has invited the employees that sent the e-mails to testify.
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