Nevada delegation sees e-mails as dump buster

Benjamin Grove

Wednesday, April 20, 2005 | 11:02 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- The e-mails that surfaced last month suggesting Yucca Mountain documents were falsified will be the biggest scandal ever to rock the program and could finally bring it to an end, Nevada lawmakers said today.

The five-member delegation met today altogether for the first time since the e-mails surfaced last month. The e-mails, believed to have been written by three U.S. Geologicial Survey scientists working on Yucca water flow models, suggest quality assurance documents were falsified.

Nevada lawmakers said the e-mails, written between 1998 and 2000, also call into question the science that Energy Department project managers have long said supports Yucca Mountain as a safe site to construct a permanent repository for the nation's most radioactive nuclear waste.

They said they finally have proof that Yucca program has been badly mismanaged.

"We are fully comfortable and confident that Yucca Mountain is staggering now," Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said in a briefing for Nevada reporters.

Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., called the e-mails the "smoking gun" that would finally bring an end to Yucca.

Energy Department officials have not commented in depth about the e-mails beyond their outlining their intention to fully investigate. But department sources and Yucca advocates have urged critics not to jump to conclusions, saying document falsification could have been limited. There is no evidence that actual Yucca science was compromised, Yucca supporters say.

But Nevada lawmakers point to one indicator that the e-mails could be more damaging than past Yucca controversies: Other lawmakers in Congress have taken notice and have begun to ask questions about Yucca.

The e-mails have "given us a lot of ammo" in making arguments for Yucca alternatives, such as leaving waste in storage onsite at nuclear plants, or the controversial process of "recycling" waste, Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., said.

Rep. Jon Porter, R-Nev., said there appears to be a "culture of mismanagement" inside the Energy Department's Yucca program.

"Members (of Congress) are starting to realize this is beyond a Nevada issue," Porter said.

The Nevada lawmakers stressed that they would work together to launch a full-court press to obtain for more information about the e-mails, alleged document falsifications, and Yucca science in general. They intend to meet with Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman next month. They have asked the department to halt Yucca pending investigations.

The lawmakers and other Yucca critics have said they believe further investigation will lead to new revelations of questionable practices at Yucca.

"This is just the beginning of water spilling over the dam," Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., said.

Inspector general investigators at the Interior and Energy Department, as well as the FBI, are investigating. Nevada lawmakers said they will get another important perspective from a full-time investigator who will probe the controversy.

Porter on Tuesday announced that a House subcommittee will soon hire the full-time investigator, who will have orders to examine a wide array of Yucca issues.

Porter has used his new job as chairman of the House Federal Workforce and Agency Organization subcommittee to focus the panel's attention on Yucca. The panel conducted its first hearing on the issue April 5.