Editorial: Yucca probe intensifies

Tuesday, April 12, 2005 | 9:13 a.m.

Rep. Jon Porter, chairman of a House subcommittee investigating the falsifying of scientific documents at the Yucca Mountain project, has scheduled what could be an important hearing for Wednesday. Porter, a Nevada Republican, wants three scientists who exchanged e-mails about doctoring work on the Yucca Mountain project to testify before his subcommittee. But the Interior Department doesn't want U.S. Geological Survey scientists, who were conducting quality assurance work for the Energy Department's Yucca Mountain project, to appear. The Interior Department contends in a letter to Porter that, in light of the "potentially serious implications" for the scientists, "it is inappropriate to require the individuals ... to testify in a public hearing about matters under active investigation."

The Interior Department and the Energy Department are conducting their own investigations, as is the FBI. But Congress has just as important a role, which is letting the American people know the truth about how pervasive the fabrication was at Yucca Mountain, where the federal government wants to permanently bury 77,000 tons of high-level nuclear waste. Indeed, just how many scientists and managers falsified documents? Was other scientific work fudged as well? These are questions, along with many others, that demand to be asked -- and answered -- in public as soon as possible, not months or years later once all these investigations are finished.

Porter's subcommittee is walking a tightrope. He doesn't want to antagonize the scientists, causing them to refuse to provide useful information to the subcommittee, particularly if scientific documents were doctored because of pressure from project managers higher up in the chain of command. Gaining the scientists' cooperation in the probe is a critical consideration in determining just how hard to push them to testify publicly.

One thing is certain: We can't count on agencies such as Interior and Energy -- in a version of the fox watching the hen house -- to conduct their own internal investigations to ferret out the truth. Congress is an equal partner in investigating this matter and shouldn't be shut out from obtaining information about any efforts to falsify data to gain approval to build a dump containing man's deadliest waste.