GAO to update probe of Yucca Mountain

Suzanne Struglinski

Friday, July 22, 2005 | 11:13 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- The Government Accountability Office will be in Nevada next month to update an investigation on the Yucca Mountain project.

Rep. Jon Porter, R-Nev., requested the review in April, after the department revealed its discovery of employee e-mails that suggest workers falsified scientific work.

Several of the e-mails, which Porter's subcommittee made public, showed disdain for the quality assurance program, with one employee writing "Piss on QA."

Known as QA, the quality assurance program is designed to assure the accuracy of Yucca research to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Once the department submits the Yucca license application to the NRC, its reviewers will use quality assurance documents to trace documents and models to see how scientists drew their conclusions.

GAO released its last report on the project in April 2004 titled "Yucca Mountain, Persistent Quality Assurance Problems Could Delay Repository Licensing and Operation," based on a request by Sens. Harry Reid, D-Nev., and John Ensign, R-Nev.

Porter wants the GAO to update the report and find what the department has done to improve quality assurance work as well as what concerns have been raised by employees working on the project.

Porter is chairman of the House Federal Workforce and Agency Organization Subcommittee and is concerned about employee coercion or intimidation. His spokesman, T.J. Crawford, said he also wants a more detailed look at harassment of whistle blowers within the project.

Yucca project spokesman Allen Benson said the department will find out more about what the review will entail once it starts.

Benson also confirmed that R. Dennis Brown, the project's quality assurance director is leaving.

Brown was in charge of the project's quality assurance program as it received criticism from the GAO as well as an audit by the commission.